Because You're You
by Tom Lennox
Summary: 3 years after S4, Behrooz Araz has a new life and a new name, but just as things start going well, an ugly coincidence forces him to face his demons head-on in his last chance to escape his past for good.
1. Summertime

New edit: This was written after S5 but Im bumping if for those of y'all new to the forum

_New edit: This was written after S5 but Im bumping if for those of y'all new to the forum. Its a trilogy along with Season 6 Europe and Season 7: Dark Forces. This is a softer story but hope you enjoy it...it answers the Behrooz question, in a serious way. _

_I'm the author of "Season 6 Europe" which I'm writing for fun as some of you may know. Do read that one too, but this story is the exact opposite of Season 6 Europe. I just decided to try my hand at something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT and create a radically different mood than when I usually write for fun._

_This story is set before, during, and after Season 6 Europe. Behrooz is the only major character that I didn't make up though recurring characters from the show will make guest appearances later on. This story was inspired by my recent travels and I hope ya'll enjoy the way the characters are presented. I was a bit uneasy writing this tale at first but I hope everyone likes it. In a way, this is lighter fare, but the shadows of the past are always present. This tale is ultimately about whether these past shadows win, or whether the characters will be able to go beyond their past._

_Note: Every chapter in this story is named after a song. This DOES NOT necessarily mean the scenes are supposed to invoke the song's lyrics, I just got lazy making up chapter names ;)_

"Some believe in destiny and some believe in fate. I believe that happiness is something we create." - "Something More", Sugarland (song)

We think about tomorrow then it slips away.  
Oh, yes, it does.  
We talk about forever but we've only got today...  
And the days go by...  
I can feel 'em flyin'  
Like a hand out the window as the cars go by...  
Yeah it's all we've been given,  
So you better start livin',  
You better start livin',  
Better start livin' right now!  
- "Days Go By", Keith Urban (song)

CHAPTER 1: SUMMERTIME

"…but we understand now," Mrs. Araz said.  
Debbie felt her spirits soar all of a sudden as Mrs. Araz offered to show her pictures of Behrooz as a child, when they still lived in Turkey.

Awww, he's was such a cute baby, Debbie thought to herself. Deep down, she knew Mrs. Araz would understand in the end, and for a moment there Debbie told herself that she should have been more understanding too. Growing up in a diverse area like L.A. exposed her to many things, and one of the foremost was the there were so many people with life experiences different from her own. Mrs. Araz had talked about how their family had to deal with ignorant people, and she began to understand how hard it must have been for Behrooz to be a Muslim teenager living between two worlds, watching U.S., British, and Israeli military forces attacking the Middle East, listening to al-Jazeera with his parents about the devastating sanctions on Iraq, Iran, and Libya, and the hostility they faced on the streets of America after terrorists unconnected to them detonated a nuclear bomb which would have destroyed the city if not for a heroic CTU agent named George Mason, who sacrificed his own life flying it into the Mojave Desert.

Debbie was shocked as Behrooz came into the bright, sunlit living room from the kitchen and took her arm.  
"Debbie, we have to leave now, it's not safe," he said with a terrified expression on his face.  
"Behrooz, what's wrong?" she asked, suddenly unnerved by his strange behavior. Mrs. Araz had been so nice, the tea was great, and she had just decided it was a stroke of luck how the two met at their SAT prep course and became study buddies, which grew into something more. Behrooz had always been the really polite, well-mannered kid who didn't like to raise hell, and in a way Debbie was like that too. She had matured late, but was doing fine in high school. Everything was going to be fine, so why was Behrooz acting like this?

As they reached the foyer of the Araz home, a well-kept house that resembled every other in their idllyic San Fernando Valley suburb, she suddenly felt a charge pain in her chest and a shortness of breath.  
"Behrooz, what's going on?" she asked, terror striken. She couldn't breathe, and felt her chest tighten. "Help me!"  
She remembered Behrooz grabbing her, placing her on the floor and desperately asking her what was wrong. As her vision blackened out, she heard a muffled bang and felt a sharp metallic object passing through her chest.

The next thing she remembered, things were fuzzy, then began to clear. Only now she wasn't Debbie. She was Danielle, her twin sister. She was in a bright place, where exactly she wasn't sure, but her sister's gentle voice was saying, "It's not your fault."

Danielle broke down crying. It was her fault. She was the one who had introduced Debbie to Behrooz after they met in their SAT prep course in the Kaplan Review center in the Sunrise Hills Mall. There were voices, and they were talking about terrorists, a bombing, and she tried to cover her ears but couldn't get her arms to move. Then she realized she wasn't really awake, that she was in that groggy state all of a sudden, and the light was much dimmer now. She didn't want to be subjected to Agent Howard Bern from CTU Los Angeles talking about Behrooz Araz and how he was almost killed for trying to help her sister, or about the Araz family's involvement in the kidnapping of Secretary Heller. No, it wasn't Agent Bern's voice. There was more fuzziness, and she was staring up at a spotless ceiling painted in gentle hues. That voice became much clearer, too.

"…days after a new wave of deadly bombings on civilian targets in Israel, British authorities say the heavy security prepared for the London Olympics is a necessary measure, despite allegations of profiling by activist groups. Joseph Yearwood, CNN Radio, London."

Now she was REALLY awake. The voice was just the alarm clock, and the radio continued.  
"…Seacoast radio 100.5FM, serving the Outer Banks and eastern North Carolina from Kill Devil Hills. We have perfect weather today, high of 87 degrees, lows of 70 with a slight chance of an afternoon thunderstorm, high tide in Kitty Hawk is at 10:08 this morning, 11:30 in Nags Head, and winds are out of the northwest at…."  
She yawned and got out of the bed, reaching for the snooze button past a bunch of lovely seashells on the dresser, illiminuated by the warm, bright touches of the morning sun making its way into the sky. Dammit, why did she need to have that dream again? At least, her sister was now telling her it was okay rather than blaming her for her death in Behrooz's house. The therapy the witness protection program had given her was indeed working a bit after all.

The radio continued, "…playing your all-time favorites for 100 minutes of commercial free music to start your workday, we'll start this morning with Kelly Clarkson's new single, featured in the movie…."  
She turned off the alarm and went out into the upstairs bathrooom of this duplex-type cottage, splashing water on her face. She quickly brushed her teeth, showered and changed for the day, putting on a light green tank top and denim jeans. The smell of pancakes and jelly came up from the dining room and she went downstairs, seeing her friend Allison in the kitchen. She could hear the soft melody of a Faith Hill song from the radio next to the dining table. She looked out the window and saw a middle aged couple packing luggage into their minivan with Pennsylvania license plates at the rental property that bordered on this one.

She didn't want to have that Behrooz dream, but it kept coming back to her. She always wondered what happened to Behrooz, what Debbie felt like in the last moments of her life as Behrooz desperately tried to save her life, risking his own. She couldn't accept the fact that he had lied to her, having been involved in Heller's kidnapping (Heller is now the President with Mike Novick as his VP) but then she will never know if Behrooz willingly participated in Heller's kidnapping or was coerced by his father. She didn't even know if Behrooz was still alive. She thought about what the case officer in witness protection, and her government shrink in Kansas City, had said to her, and focused on the present.

"Up early, eh, Dani?" Allison, a slim brunette with slight curls wearing a "life is good" purple T-shirt said. "Thought you don't work until 12 today. Besides, Outback doesn't really get busy till dinner, much better than the one I worked in last summer in Richmond. They might cut you some slack today, who knows."  
"Yeah, thought I'd do some errands," Debbie replied. "Maybe get some of my jogging in, it's such great weather these couple days."

"Yeah, I could like lie there on the sand all day," Allison said, "But at least I'll be serving the outdoor seating area today, so it's cool."

"I like Outback so far," Danielle said, "The restaurant thing's kinda new for me, but its actually pretty laid back. I know our friends back at school, like Jess, she's like whats the point of being at the beach all summer if you're working but hey, I'm not complaining. I still get to swim every day and sneak some bread out to the seagulls when I get off at night."

"Jockey Ribs's actually pretty hectic, but hey, we're at the beach, while that slut's still trying to sell Xbox games to 12 year olds at Best Buy AND taking two English classes."

Danielle let out a slight chuckle. Her friend's sarcastic sense of humor was competing with the dread she felt from her dream for control over her emotions. Jess from Raleigh was one of their best friends too, and if she had been there, she would also be laughing at Allison's sarcasm. It's the first time since her sister died and their family forced to leave Los Angeles under witness protection that she really knew people so well. It was amazing how much friends could help you through a hard time. Danielle so wanted to tell these girls the truth about why she was here, but knew that she couldn't.

Casey, another of her girls, came out of the kitchen sporting a Kill Devil Hills beach lifeguard uniform and greeted Dani and Allison cheerfully. She had just finished making the waffles, handing one to Danielle. "Just in time, Dani," she said.  
"They're…like the best, still gotta say it," Dani said, smiling, "I just can't make mine that good. Mine's always like yucky and falling apart. Jeez, I hate you."

They shared a laugh and Casey replied, "You're getting better at it. I swear, by the end of this summer you'll be cooking the way my grandma taught me how to."

Dani had gotten into cooking after her move to Kansas City under the federal witness protection program. She wasn't able to make many friends in the seven months she spent of her senior year at her new high school, not with the mood she was in, and her escape was watching TV. She became increasingly drawn to the Food Network, the only one that didn't have news reports or dramas about terrorism and war that constantly reminded her of her beloved Debbie. When Bobby Flay raced against the clock in Iron Chef, he's just trying to finish cooking a new banquet in time, not trying to prevent a nuclear bomb from destroying a major U.S. city.

Dani remembered the first movie Debbie and Behrooz went to together. It was the Matrix, also one of her personal favorites, mostly due to the hotness of Keanu Reeves, and in that movie, the Oracle had told Neo that one bite of the cookies she was baking would cheer him up after a their particularly discouraging meeting. The same was evidently true for Casey's waffles. The dread she felt from the dream began to lift as the sweet aroma went up to her nostrils, and Dani poured the maple syrup onto the waffle. She felt the sweet tinge of the syrup and the soft texture of the waffle as she slowly chewed it, savoring every second of it. She also helped herself to a nice fresh banana the girls kept in a large crystal bowl next to the large fridge, washing it down with a cup of skim milk.

Sometimes you have to think about what you have instead of what you've lost. It's the only way you can really go on in life, Dani had been told. She still blamed herself for what her family had to go through, suffering through Debbie's tragic death at only age 16, moving to a cookie-cutter suburb of Kansas City, which she felt boring after her own 16 years in Los Angeles, and until the last couple months, blaming herself constantly for killing her other half. Her parents were devastated at having to lose everything they had known on the West Coast, and it was her fault. Her mom and dad never hinted that they blamed her due to her suggestion that Behrooz and Debbie go out, but Dani suspected it. She would give anything for things to go back the way they were.

Yet it would be unfair to Casey, Allison, and the other two girls she shared this cottage with, Elyse and Becca, which she met attending college here in North Carolina, to say they were any less special or wonderful people than the friends in California she had never said goodbye to.

It was her mom's idea for her to stay in North Carolina over the summer, actually, instead of go back to Kansas City. It all started in a phone call she had made from UNC-Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina) back to Missouri, when she mentioned that Casey's parents had a vacation house and there was extra space for friends who wanted to live and work on the Outer Banks over the summer with her. Kill Devil Hills wasn't exactly a crazy party town, a rather wholesome family resort, relatively upscale, so her mother in particular urged her to accept Casey's offer. Besides, her mom knew how much she missed wading into the Pacific surf at Laguna Beach, and figured this would be good for her healing.

"All right, girls, I'll catch ya'll later." Dani said pleasantly.  
Allison nodded. "You work until closing tonight?"  
"Yeah, its gonna be like this on Fridays from now on cause Louis quit."  
"Aww, well we can still catch swimming events tonight," she said, referring to the Olympics going on in London.

"Oh yeah, definitely. Jerry Phelps is so hot, I'm gonna be so pissed if he doesn't win."  
Debbie got into her VW Beetle and backed out of the driveway, taking a short stretch of private roadway before emerging on NC state highway 12, also known as N. Virginia Dare Trail on its stretch along the seafront of Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills, and Ocean Drive through Nags Head. Her radio was turned to the hit music station, whose rap, R&B, and hard rock selections helped deal with some of the homesickness. Things were better in college. Here at the beach, she just felt things were a bit plain. It wasn't so much that North Carolina and Missouri were boring places than that L.A. was simply the heart of it all and that anywhere else in the nation except New York paled in comparison.

Pretending to be the girl who lived in Kansas City for the past six years and Oklahoma City before that wasn't easy for the California girl. But in a way, learning how to become an obsessed Kansas City Chiefs fan AND a NASCAR nut, not to mention learning the lyrics to the chart topping hits of Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, Jo Dee Messina, Sugarland, and Leann Rimes actually filled her mind enough so take time away from thinking of home, Behrooz, and the rest. No, not everyone in Missouri was like that, but the witness protection people wanted to create an identity sufficiently different enough from the old Danielle Pendleton. But here, alone in her car, driving alone the tranquil two-lane highway lined one side with hotels and sand dunes and the other with restaurants and low-rise condos, she felt she could afford to be the old California girl for just a moment. She knew this wasn't good, but she just couldn't help it.

Then the Nora Jones song ended, though, and the commercials came on, and she changed to the country station. "I'm not Danielle Pendleton anymore," she said to herself silently, "I'm Dani McSpadden from Kansas City, Missouri, and this is my favorite song."

(In a filmed version, this is where the opening credits come on as "Summertime" by Kenny Chesney plays and we are presented with establishing scenes of Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, and the rest of the northern Outer Banks. Casey jogs across Beach Road, exchanging hellos with a Mexican gardener who gives her a sunflower, and past some beach grasses and reaches the lifeguard stand, and chalks in her name on the board attached it to it, indicating she's on duty now. She takes down the large umbrella over the wooden lifeguard stand so she can enjoy the sun. Amid the historic waterfront of the town of Manteo, workers are opening up quaint shops while a group of young men speed off in a powerboat as they leave the no wake zone. On a fishing pier, a father is teaching his son how to tie bait, while many people are sunbathing on the warm sands below. There are views of three Outer Banks landmarks: the black and white striped Bodie Island Lighthouse, the Wright Brothers Memorial, and Jockey Ridge, the largest sand dune in eastern North America, on which tourists are hang gliding. Finally we see a crowded highway bridge and we zoom in on a Jeep Grand Cherokee.)

"Yo Robbie, check that out," Brian Lee said, pointing at a man speeding on a jet ski as they passed over Albemarle Sound on the long Wright Brothers Memorial Bridge connecting Kitty Hawk and the other beaches with the North Carolina mainland. "You know, my friend did that once when he was wasted, it was hardcore, man.  
Robbie Shiraz nodded. "That's insane, dude." Robbie Shiraz in a past life was Behrooz Araz, and this moment was probably the closest his life had ever been to normal. To his friends, Brian Lee, Matt Dyson, Kyle Mitchell, Marc Fisher, and Brad Scarlatti, he was Danny, a fellow marine biology major at the University of Maryland-College Park.

Robbie was the half Turkish, half Iranian, formerly quite shy dude who grew up in a preppy Washington, D.C. suburb, had an uneventful life, until he went to college and began to branch out. They were here for a summer-long program held at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the North Carolina Aqarium to do research on the wildlife in the wetlands, estuaries, and beaches on this part of the coast. The school had put them up in a vacation condo in Kill Devil Hills, six miles from the national seashore, and their first impression was that it was a boring town. Him and Marc were great friends, and the other guys were pretty cool, and they all looked forward to getting to know them better and having a wild and crazy summer here in addition to the research they had to do academically, and even that part was in the beaches and marshes rather than some classroom in Maryland.

"I was expecting Ocean City," Kyle said, referring to the beach town in Maryland that college kids flocked to in droves to get drunk and high all summer long. Some of their friends, the lucky ones, were spending their summer there. Most, unlike them, of course were stuck home in places like Baltimore, small-town Maryland, New Jersey, or Long Island taking summer classes or working at the mall or the pool or their family business.  
"We gotta go another 2 hours south to Atlantic Beach if we really want to get wasted or laid," Behrooz said, the studious, mild-mannered boy from his past still inside him. He was the one who had went to the library and checked out the Fodors and Insiders' guide to the Carolina coast.

"Straight, man," the driver, Marc, replied. "Hey, my friend Jason from South Carolina, he's going there this summer, maybe we can meet up. Down there, they sell full kegs at the grocery store. You ready for the keg stand, Robbie?"  
"Yeah," Behrooz replied, in the vacation mood he forced himself into, "Can't hold off on that forever."  
"That's the spirit," Marc replied, following the road signs to "Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, Cape Hatteras."

What nobody outside the witness protection program, and some CTU agents like Curtis Manning and Tony Almeida, knew, was his past as Behrooz Araz. It was something he desperately wanted to forget but came back sometimes. It helped that he got to adopt the personality of the shy kid with conservative Middle Eastern immigrant parents. He could actually branch out now without people thinking he was weird, only sheltered. The government put him with an old friend of Dina Araz who lived in Potomac, Maryland, who no doubt was not told Dina was actually a terrorist and was executed by Marwan for betraying him.

He met Marc, an all-American kid from the suburbs of Baltimore when they lived on the same floor in their freshman dorm, and it was Steve and his friends who gave Behrooz a social life, urging him to go with them to a frat party and to play beer pong in their room with their large closet door on weekend nights, eluding their RA. He learned that he actually enjoyed the wild living and the craziness that was so authentically college, though finding a girl was always hard for him. Debbie was unexpected, she was the first and only girl he had dated, and it was because she was somewhat different than the typical American girl, and at first more acceptable to his mother. Mom would never have approved any of the girls here at school, Behrooz knew. But Behrooz knew that he was a new person named Danny Shiraz, and he desperately wanted one of the girls he went to parties with, the ones who hung out with him, Marc, and their friends, but as drunk as he got, as much as he loved the parties on Frat Row and student apartments, hooking up was not something he ever quite learned.


	2. You Had Me From Hello

CHAPTER 2: Just the Girl

CHAPTER 2: You Had Me From Hello

Behrooz and his friends pulled up into the sun-splashed parking lot of the Sea Ranch Condominium, a six-story, newly constructed building next to the hotel by the same name. Behrooz caught a glimpse of the Wright Brothers Memorial to the southwest. Robby Shiraz, the guy Behrooz was supposed to be, used to care about this kind of historical stuff, but knew that Kyle, Marc, and the others cared nothing right now except for the liquor stores, which seemed to be few and far between, and the girls.

To be honest, they did care about the research they would be doing here in North Carolina, especially since it counted for three college credits and because after all, the did enjoy nature and working with aquatic stuff. Why else were they marine biology majors? It was actually pretty nice for the school to find a place like this for them to stay, Behrooz thought as the guys got their electronic keys from the front desk and took the elevators up to the fourth floor, walking down the bright hallways with the sun shining through. Behrooz, Marc, and Brian shared a rental unit facing the blue-green waters of the Atlantic Ocean while Matt, Kyle, and Brad had to do with a room in the other side on the building, with views to Highway 12 and a bunch of surf shops, fast food restaurants, and a gas station. The room was equipped with a kitchen, bathroom, living room area, and comfy beds plus large windows taking advantage of the condo's oceanfront location.

Behrooz walked onto the balcony and looked down, seeing an attractive redhead girl reading a book on a lawn chair and drinking a glass of lemonade.

"Whoa, check her out," Behrooz said. He was always more confident and excited when he was in fun mood, which meant every party, football or basketball game, or road trip.  
Marc looked at the girl and stared for a good six seconds. "We'll probably run into her."  
Marc then said loudly to the other guys. "I swear, in two weeks, we're gonna get Behrooz to get a hot a chick."  
Behrooz laughed shyly.

"You gotta be confident, dude, like, just act natural. We're going down to the beach today, before we gotta meet with Dr. Jameson, and we're gonna get you started."  
Behrooz was used to this kind of pressure, but usually Marc and their crowd back in Maryland never pressed TOO hard. He's gotten some nice conversations with even some sorority girls at parties before, but he rarely saw any of them again. Marc always said it was the moment that mattered, that after you "did" a girl, its enough. But Behrooz wasn't raised this way. Not Behrooz, and not even Robby.

Of course Navi Araz even opposed him going out with Debbie. Dating was a sin in Navi's brand of Islam, and Behrooz's mom followed the same religious strictures, but they tolerated what they thought was just a flirtation for a while. He was surprised how he and Debbie got things started, but that fateful day in Los Angeles changed everything. Since then, Robby Shiraz was the old Behrooz in this respect.  
The family he lived with now, the Shirazs, knew Dina Araz since her days living in Iran and they didn't mind him trying to find a girlfriend. But the Shirazes were Christians, and "Robby" knew it was not moral to view things the way Marc did. Yes, they were the best of friends, but that didn't mean they can't disagree sometimes. Only sometimes Marc was so convincing that Behrooz thought he agreed with him.

An hour later, they were walking along the coast, and Matt was already down there in the greenish surf, having a pleasant conversation with a young woman with a light blue bikini holding a surfboard. Behrooz's eyes wandered around, first at some women taking pictures in a gazebo, some hanging out by the pool in the Days Inn motel next door, the blonde female lifeguard, and finally a brunette playfully splashing water at her boyfriend at the foot shower as they tried to get the sand out of their flip flops and sandals. Man, she's taken.

He wasn't all thinking about girls, though, as he enjoyed the salty breeze coming in from the ocean and saw the fishing boats plowing the waters offshore. He was probably going to like Kill Devil Hills a lot more than his friends and classmates here. Yeah, he was the party dude, but there was also the side of him, the more subdued side, possibly the side left over from his Behrooz Araz days, that appreciated the soft splash of waves on a sandy beach and scenes like the landscapes they saw in North Carolina's countryside and small towns on the way here, like the clichéd scenes of little kids running a lemonade stand in front of a house with a white picket fence and an American flag flying from its front porch. Behrooz actually loved the all-American stuff, but of course he couldn't tell anyone why that was the case.

His thoughts were interrupted by Matt coming up after waving bye to the girl.  
"See there, Rob? That was easy. I just fetched her surfboard for her and we started talking about the waves and the weather and all. She lives in the Days Inn, second floor, here with her family and some cousins. It's really easy to start a random converstion and go pretty far with it."

"Rob," Marc said, "I want you to just be confident. You're always talking about this girl or that girl, you gotta just go for it. Now, I want you to talk to at least one of those cute girls down there, and let me know how things go."  
Behrooz paused for a moment.  
"It's cool, man, I'll be taking a nap here in the sun, I won't interfere. Gotta get rested for some boozing tonight after the orientation. Matt's gonna go grab some food, so there ya have it."

Oh, man, Behrooz thought. Well, Marc was right. He had enough things he had to silently hold inside of himself. Compared to the weight of losing Debbie, being an accomplice in the kidnapping of Heller, who was now the President, and killing his father and Tariq, just forcing himself to talk to a girl wasn't that bad. Besides, he just wanted Marc to stop bothering him about it.

Behrooz looked around once more, and his eyes kept coming to the lifeguard stand. Unlike those at the pool, where some of his friends sat in during their on-campus job at the University of Maryland, this was actually a platform type design with a nice wooden chair and a gigantic umbrella, the kind you find at most beaches. There was a chalkboard on the back of the stand identifying the guard on duty as "Casey", plus times for low time and high tide and some other random info. Well, she was alone by herself too.

Casey actually wasn't using the umbrella, Behrooz saw. Like so many white girls, she was evidently trying to work on her tan. He felt her skin was just the right color, with a nice healthy tan, and her shiny blond hair was tied up in a bob, though not completely, with a few wavy strands flowing down next to her face, and he glimpsed the sunflower in her hair. It made her seem so cute, Behrooz thought.

He took a few steps toward that lifeguard stand, then stopped for a moment, looking back at Marc urging him on from a gazebo on the Days Inn property.  
"Oh, well," he told himself as he forced himself to walk over in front of Casey.

"Excuse me," he said, perhaps not confidently enough, he told himself, "I just have a quick question."  
Casey took down at him. "Sure, what's up?" Her voice was as pleasant as her looks.  
"I was just wondering, um, if there's a shark problem here. You know, it's my first time at this beach so I'm jjust wondering."  
"Sharks?!" Casey said, obviously trying to stifle a laugh.  
Behrooz's first thought was that this wasn't going well, but he listened as Casey continued to talk.

"Well, it's the ocean, there are sharks everywhere, but your chances of getting attacked by one here? I'd say you'd more likely be hit by lightning. Well, that actually did happen to one person here, but you're be fine."  
Behrooz searched for words. Hey, she's just the same age at his, it should be easy.

"So what's it like being a lifeguard at a beach, compared to, like a pool. Some of my friends back home are working at the pool this summer. I guess this is kinda different."

"It's awesome! I love it!" Casey replied.  
"So do you live here year round, or just the summer?" Behrooz asked, knowing that the Outer Banks practically empty out after the summer ends. Perhaps this was one of those local girls who was actually from the Outer Banks?

"No, I'm just here for the summer. I'm in college, and my family has a place here where I'm staying with some friends, and my parents visits us a lot, so it's really nice. I like it here a lot."

"What school do you go to?" Behrooz asked.  
"UNC-Chapel Hill."  
"That makes us rivals, I guess," Behrooz said, easing up, "I go to Maryland. I'm actually here for a summer program with some of my friends. We're staying at the Sea Ranch, the rest of the guys are taking naps or going on a beer run, and I just wanted to take a walk cause I drove for the last three hours." The last part was a lie, but how else could he explain why he was standing in the sand right in front of her asking about sharks?"  
"Maryland-College Park?" she asked.

"Yeah, the real one, as opposed to UMBC or Eastern Shore."  
She laughed. "Yeah, I get it. Here, we got like UNC-Greensboro and Asheville and all those little ones pretending to be us, but we're the real UNC. So you still sore about the Final Four?" she asked, referring to the NCAA men's basketball tournament a couple months ago.

"Whatever," Behrooz said, "But at least we both beat Duke."  
"Yeah, f them!" Casey said, both of them laughing, "But hey, I'm actually dating this guy who goes to Maryland. Do you happen to know someone called Matt Mastranstuoni?"  
Behrooz was crushed by her revelation that she did indeed have a boyfriend, which he suspected already (how can a girl like this NOT be taken?), but thought about this Matt guy with the funny last name.

"No, can't say I do. So you're from Maryland originally or something, knowing him from there?"  
As proud as Behrooz was of his school, its not ranked quite as high as Casey's, and usually its people from Maryland going down there versus the other way around. Plus, this girl didn't have a Southern accent at all.

"I'm from Charlotte, actually," she replied, "I went to high school with Matt but he chose to go to Maryland just to get away from home…yeah, I know. I love my school, but he just wanted to get away. I wanted to be here my family and all, plus I love North Carolina."  
Behrooz didn't know what else to say. "Well, I've gotta run now, and I'll probably be seeing you again, cause my friends are really into surfing. Maybe one of them knows Matt."  
"That would be cool. Yeah, ask them!" she said.

Behrooz gave her a smile, which she returned, and jogged up the wooden planks leading from the sand dunes up to the concrete sidewalk where the footwash was located.  
"Wow, that was a long time," Marc said, greeting him outside the motel pool.  
"I talked to that lifeguard over there. She goes to UNC, but her boyfriend actually goes to our school," Behrooz told him, "This guy Matt Mastrans-something."  
"Whoa, man. That girl? She's hot as hell, dude? I don't know any Matt…"  
"Yo, what's going on?" Kyle Mitchell asked, coming with some McDonalds and Taco Bell. "Did Robbie, you know…"

"He talked to that lifeguard chick right there," Marc said, pointing at Casey, "Her boyfriend goes to our school."  
"Oh, connections, that's what we want, Rob," Kyle said, "Her boyfriend's not HERE, you know what I'm sayin?"  
"She asked me if I knew him, this guy Matt Mastrans-something."  
"Matt Mastranstuoni, the guy with the funny Italian name, I'm friends with him, man!" Kyle said, his own eyes wide with excitement. "He was in my lab group in physics, we like hang out so much!"  
"Maybe we should talk to her again some time," Behrooz said.


	3. Some Beach

CHAPTER 3: Some Beach

CHAPTER 3: Some Beach

Behrooz thought that maybe it was a good thing that he couldn't get Casey's image out of his mind. The main reason that he knew it was the first time in his life he could have these feelings and not get into any trouble. Even as he socialized with Marc and Brian in the living room of their summer condo as Brad came in with three 30 packs of Coors Lite and a six-pack of Corona to put into the fridge, Behrooz's mind wandered off to the past.

This wasn't supposed to happen, he told himself. Spending two and a half months away from "home" should help him forget, but it wasn't happening. If anything, he was thinking in terms of Behrooz Araz rather than Robbie Shiraz more now that he's in North Carolina compared with Maryland. He thought about how some tourist ads promoted a beach getaway as a place to forget yourself, while others claim it was a time to be yourself.

According to his new identity, Robbie Shiraz had never had a real girlfriend before, only a flirtation and a couple of dates his freshman year that went nowhere with a particular girl named Jen, who conveniently transferred to a smaller school in Pennsylvania. Debbie was the only girl Behrooz had ever had a somewhat serious relationship with, and it was almost miraculous how comfortable he felt with her, since he had always been shy around girls. Much of it came from his upbringing by immigrant parents, who often did not want their sons associating with the stereotypically shallow, unreliable, and materialistic American girls. The fact that his dad was an Islamic fundamentalist made things much worse, though at first Father had let Behrooz associate with Debbie.

Father had only told Behrooz that it was because Debbie wasn't as "bad" as most American girls, but in hindsight Behrooz knew that the main reason was that his having an American girlfriend would only further establish the Araz family as assimilating, secular Middle Eastern immigrants and not the family of radical Islamists they actually were. Debbie meant so much to Behrooz. She was the only girl he could really confide in, and spending time with her only increased Behrooz's uneasiness at what his father had taught him about America and the terrorist operation.

Behrooz began thinking back on that fateful day three years ago, but Marc interrupted him.  
"Something bothering you, man?" Marc asked.  
A delivery man from Pizza Hut had already brought three Supreme pizzas plus mozzarella sticks, Behrooz's favorite, but he was still staring at the window.  
"Nothing, just thinking about Jen, what might have been if she hadn't transferred."

In reality, Behrooz was thinking about how he had come since the day Debbie died in his arms right in the Araz foyer. He started feeling ashamed of trying to woo girls at the parties back at school. Going to college was pretty hectic and didn't give Behrooz much time to ponder these things, only letting him focus on his classes, friends, and keeping the identity the government had given him. Summers had always been bad, and being at the beach was especially hard. It brought back memories of Debbie and himself riding the waves on the California coast, eating cotton candy on the Santa Monica Pier, chasing down ice cream trucks and embracing each other under the swaying palm trees that were so ubiquitous.

"You gotta let her go, like I've said a million times, Robbie," Marc said.  
"Yeah, I know," Behrooz replied, "I still couldn't believe I managed to get a girl like her, don't know if it's ever gonna happen again."  
Behrooz looked out the window at the lifeguard stand, and saw that a male guard was there now and that Casey was talking someone who looked like a friend of hers and they were going toward the overhang of the Days Inn next to the Sea Ranch. They were probably on their way across the road to grab some lunch.  
. "That lifeguard I talked to, the one from UNC, she was really nice, but she's going with Matt Mastranstuoni. There she is, right there."  
Kyle went to the window and looked. "C'mon, Robbie, I know her boyfriend Matt M, we can go down right now, just pretend to run into her."

"That might freak her out," Behrooz said, "Why don't we just wait until she's on duty again so it seems more natural, like we're just hanging out there and I point her out and all."  
"Behrooz is right actually," Marc said. "See man, you're learning."  
Marc then said to Kyle, "Yeah, after lunch."

Danielle hasn't felt this good in a long time, as she jogged along the sleepy lane on the sound side of Kill Devil Hills. Its been three years, and it was a good sign that her dreams now involve Debbie telling her its not her fault. Losing a twin sister at age 16 was something that would never really leave her, but she needed to get rid of the guilt. After all, Debbie was the one who chose to go out with Behrooz after Danielle had introduced him to her, and it was Debbie who wanted more intimacy with her boyfriend.

She was different than Behrooz in that she really didn't want to escape her past. She was devastated when her family met with agent Curtis Manning at CTU Los Angeles, who told them that while there was a chance they could get their identities back, it was a decision that the government would make based on their situation, and that they shouldn't really hope for the best. Basically, she should be content with being Danielle McSpadden for the rest of her life, and her parents had to trade in their positions at prestigious high-tech companies for new jobs designing web pages for the county government library and parks divisions in Missouri.

The federal government was putting Tomas Sherek, the terrorist linked to Navi Araz on trial for the deadly bombing of a commuter train in L.A. as well as for the kidnapping and attempted murder of James Heller and Audrey Raines. Sherek came from a wealthy, influential family in Turkey that made millions from establishing a major, successful sportswear company. With the Turkish government and most of the Turkish people supporting the war on terrorism, a conviction for Sherek would embarrass the family and quite possibly invite a domestic backlash against them in Turkey, including the possibility of their sales crashing.

Even though Sherek had been sentenced to death by electric chair by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles County following painful testimonies by Danielle, her parents, Secretary Heller, Audrey Raines, and agent Jack Bauer, he still had one last appeal coming up, and the government was not confident they could get the death penalty. The feared embarrassment of his Turkish family had in fact materialized, and upon Sherek's initial sentencing, Turkish riot police stood by idly while individuals vandalized stores owned by the Sherek family, outraging Sherek's father, whom the government suspected of trying to hire assasins to seek revenge. According to CIA in Istanbul, Sherek's father wanted to target Debbie's family because he knew targeting Heller or Audrey would only make matters worse for himself. Of course he had also wanted to target Bauer, but upon meeting with a corrupt, bribed Turkish intelligence agent, he heard the news of Jack's death in a CTU shootout when the government wanted to arrest him for his raid on the Chinese consulate. In addition, the upcoming appeal was a chance for the Shereks to clear their family name, and they had hired an acclaimed civil rights lawyer named Weiss, the same man who tried to stop Jack from torturing Joe Prado regarding Marwan's bomb. Until the day both Tomas Sherek and his father were dead, Danielle Pendleton could never be herself again.

For the time being, though, she had a smile on her face as she jogged along to a hip hop song past several vacation rental properties, piers, and docks. She loved this particular trail cause it led right next to the shoreline of Albemarle Sound, and she could actually jog down a narrow sandbar far out into the water, and feel she was actually floating on her feet. She turned off her music and sat down there for a couple minutes, completely at peace with herself. Yeah, I've really gone a long way, Danielle told herself as she watched a seagull land on the water right next to her, bob its head around a bit, then fly off toward one of the marshy islands in the sound.

"Hey Danielle!" a voice called and Dani turned around, seeing a middle aged black man in a kayak with his wife. That was Mr. Peterson, one of the regulars at Outback Steakhouse. Rick Peterson was a self-made entrepenuer from Nashville who spent many summer days here and often went to the bar at Outback with golf and fishing buddies. Dani had initially been paranoia about people like him and his group, thinking they were stalkers hired by Sherek. Not anymore. Danielle was glad she chose a busy restaurant like Outback to work at this summer since the daily interactions forced her to be somewhat extroverted, something she was far from even before Debbie died. After that tragedy, Dani had curled up into herself even more, and this was definitely helping.

This man in the kayak was one of her favorite customers. The thing about this place was that everyone is so laid back, and it was beginning to grow on her too. People actually asked her where she was from and how her life was going, and even though she couldn't be honest, it was still a pleasant change from the hectic pace of life in LA. Dani remembered how she used to feel bad for several of her friends who had to leave California for what they had disparagingly called "Red America". Now, she was really beginning to understand how wrong some of her sterotypes had been and why people would actually choose to live in a place like North Carolina.

"Oh, hey Rick," she said pleasantly, since he had insisted on using his first name.  
"So I guess you finally discovered that sandbar, eh? Part of my yard, ya' know," he said, laughing. "That's actually my place right there."  
"Oh, sorry, I thought it was part of the public…" Dani began apologetically.  
"No worries, really," Rick said pleasantly, "You're welcome to come by any time."

They had a nice conversation about fishing before she had to continue her jog and get ready for work, and she jogged back across town past marshy grasses that went up to her shoulders, she actually found it hard to get that smile off her face.

--  
Behrooz, Marc, and Kyle sat inside the gazebo finishing their pizza and feeding crumbs to the gulls until they finally saw Casey wave goodbye to two other girls and walk in their direction on her way back to the lifeguard stand.

"Hey there again," Behrooz said as she went past, the guys leaning out the edge of the gazebo toward the concrete path leading past the Days Inn pool to the beach. The presence of his friend Marc really helped boost his confidence this time. He actually didn't know Kyle that well b  
"Hi," Casey said with an acknowledging smile.  
"Yo," Marc called out, "Robbie here was saying that your boyfriend goes to Maryland? We're all from there."  
"Yeah!" Casey said, turning and walking right toward the gazebo. "I was wondering if you knew him, remember?" she added, looking at Behrooz.  
"His name's Matt Mastranstuoni, he's gonna be a senior in the fall."

A look of recognition appeared in Kyle's face. "Matt, no kidding?" he exclaimed. "Me and him are like this," he said, crossing his fingers. "We hang out all the time and we're on the same intramural soccer team. He was in my lab group and physics and we kinda saved each others lives there, that's how we got to know each other. I'm Kyle by the way."

Behrooz couldn't believe what happened next. Casey called out to the male guard on the stand and asked him to cover her for a couple extra minutes. She and Kyle exchanged some stories about this Matt guy and "Robbie" and Marc introduced themselves too. Behrooz didn't know if he blushed when he looked into Casey's soft blue eyes and shook her hand.

"Yeah, we have a place a block and a half from here, just across the street," Casey said in response to Marc's question about how she got lucky enough to be here all summer. "Been coming here since I was a kid. Guess we're neighbors this year," she added pleasantly.

"Wait, oh my God," Casey said, "I think I remember now, Matt always liked to talk about his friends, and you're the crazy Kyle right? You're in some of Matt's Facebook pics."

When Kyle first said hi to her, Casey already felt she knew this guy from somewhere, though at that moment she couldn't remember where exactly. Then when he introduced himself it all came back to her. Kyle had gotten a nice buzz cut that made him look less crazy, but this definitely was the guy in half of her boyfriend's Facebook pics and Webshots.

Kyle Mitchell was surprised his reputation had spread so far. "I mean, we all do crazy s when we're wasted," he said sheepishly.  
"Like throwing water balloons at a cop car and wrecking half your dorm room with firecrackers?" she asked with a wry grin that further melted Behrooz's heart. "But to be honest, Matt's said some good things about you."

Behrooz's initial attraction toward Casey's physical appearance was quickly being coupled and perhaps even overcome by the radiant personality the girl showed. It had begun the same way with Debbie, him looking at her hair first then finding that emotional connection. Casey was too much of a reach, he told himself, and plus, she's Matt's girl, not his. Despite this, Behrooz just realized that this was one of those few times he had felt this way about a girl without knots in his stomach. Perhaps deep down, he had finally almost convinced himself that Debbie's death wasn't his fault, and that he can afford to find real love again without fearing something terrible would happen.

"Hey Casey!" the male lifeguard called out, "You ready??"  
"Coming!" she called out, then turned to Behrooz, Kyle, and Marc. "He's so impatient," she said to them, "It's not like every day I run into some of Matt's buddies."

"You know, we should really hang out sometime," Kyle said, and it was clear from Casey's expression that she was just about to say the same thing. Behrooz could tell she said it as in she was interested in meeting new friends, and that's it.  
"Yeah. You know, there's this bar down the street with nice Happy Hour specials on Mondays that me and my friends go to. We can go chill, watch the Team USA vs. Dominican Republic baseball game."  
"Caaa-sss-eeyyyyyy!" the guy on the stand called.  
"Ok guys, REALLY gotta go. Too bad I don't have a pen on me but my screenname's on Facebook. Casey Winemiller from UNC, or, to make it easier, go through Mike's profile."

The three guys were silent for several seconds until she was out of earshot.  
"She's pretty taken," Behrooz said.  
"Normally, Robbie, I'd say screw the boyfriend, but since Mike and me are cool, you'd better not mess with her," he said, only half jokingly. "We're can all be friends with Casey, but that's it. Matt did tell me about this UNC girlfriend called Casey but it never quite strike me until now."  
"I mean, we ARE like 300 miles from Maryland," Behrooz said.

Marc began talking about how easy it was to start a conversation with the girl, but Behrooz knew the truth was that this Casey interaction only happened because of Kyle's connection to her.  
"She might be off limits," he said to Behrooz, "But we don't know who's living with her."


	4. I Love This Bar

REMINDER: In this story, Behrooz Araz and Danielle Pendleton (sister of Behrooz's dead girlfriend Debbie) are both in the witness protection program with the assumed names of Robbie Shiraz and Danielle McSpadden, respectively

REMINDER: In this story, Behrooz Araz and Danielle Pendleton (sister of Behrooz's dead girlfriend Debbie) are both in the witness protection program with the assumed names of Robbie Shiraz and Danielle McSpadden, respectively.

When the chapters are titled, I chose to name them after songs when there's a song name applicable. Note that the content of the song itself is not necessary related to the story (though it may be.)

CHAPTER 4: I Love This Bar

"Yeah, Matt, no kidding," Casey said into her cell phone as she waited in line at the Bank of America. "Kyle Mitchell and two of his friends. They were pretty nice. Said they're gonna be down here all summer."  
"Yeah, Kyle did mention that, but I thought they were staying further down inside the preserve, must have been last minute."  
"Actually that's exactly right. I talked to him online yesterday and he said they had to switch to one of the rental properties here owned by a hotel cause of some building codes violations thingy on the seashore."  
Casey saw the bank teller motion for her to go deposit her lifeguarding paycheck. 17.00 an hour was great for any summer job, and she wouldn't trade hers for anything.. "Ok, Matt, gotta go now, but I can't wait till Saturday. Love you!"  
"Love you too, sweetheart," Matt said before ending the call.

Casey and Matt had been dating for a little over four years, since their junior year in high school. Matt ended up in her school after expanding development in their Charlotte suburb led to a redrawing of some of the school district's boundaries. She remember that beautiful fall day when she had to wait for the activity bus after school because she had to work on a group history project and he had just served detention for participating in a food fight in the cafeteria. She didn't know exactly what Matt saw in her, but after that day, they began noticing one another in the two classes they shared. By the time Homecoming came, she had agreed to be his date.

Casey's high school was in many ways similar to the one in that movie "Mean Girls" with Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams, yet not entirely. With her flowing blonde hair, fit body, and a wardrobe well stocked with the latest Abercrombie and American Eagle fashions, she was one of the most popular girls in school. However, the "plastics" stereotype wasn't as exaggerated in real life, and Casey also had a reputation as a high-achieving student who stayed on the honor roll during her entire high school career, one of the better members of the swim team, and also as an easygoing, all-around awesome person.

Matt, in slight contrast, was kind of the goofy type, but he had handsome looks, reasonable play time on the soccer team, and enough smarts to make it to a respected university, albeit one two states away. It was tough being far apart, her going to school at UNC while Matt was at Maryland, a seven hour drive away, yet she loved him with all of her heart and they always caught up on lost time during the breaks. Their first summer of college, they both lived at home in Charlotte and saw each other practically every day, and last summer she was at the beach, with him giving regular visits and vice versa, plus she did spend almost an entire month in Charlotte since her supervisor at the beach was pretty flexible. The first and only serious strain in their relationship was when Matt had gotten drunk one night at a frat party during sophomore year of college and gotten in bed with a random girl, which Casey discovered in a most inglorious way: Matt's friend's AIM away message, itself composed under the influence of mixed drinks and cheap beer.

What hurt the most was that Matt had tried to lie to her, and only let it out because he was still hung over and not thinking clearly the next day when she called him. He had since made it up to her, and compared to so many of her friends, her relationship was solid. Her friend Allison's latest relationship only lasted three months, while she and Matt had been together for four years. This summer, Matt and her would have plenty of time to see one another now that they are both in North Carolina. Casey was already beginning to think about a nice sweet surprise for Matt for next weekend.

--

If Behrooz's first day at his internship was a typical one, then this must be the best time of his life, he thought to himself. Today had consisted mostly of an orientation, with tours of the northern sections of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, meeting with their two professors and some park rangers, and going out in a boat near Oregon Inlet, the straight separating Bodie Island, where Kill Devil Hills was located, and Pea Island, a much narrower and less built-up piece of land with marshes on one side and white sand beaches on the other. This summer would involve a lot of time outdoors, particularly on boats in the estuaries of the region, finding wildlife and conducting ecological research on the impact of sea levels, erosion, and pollution on the animal and marine life on this preserve.

He also couldn't get Casey out of his mind, and he had convinced himself that while he looked forward to meeting the girls she was sharing her family cottage with, Casey would always be the real prize. He had to admit that it was all due to Kyle that he and Marc were beginning to get to know Casey. Brian, Darryl, and Steve, the rest of the Maryland students, knew about Behrooz's little chat with the lifeguard as well and could only wish they had been there to see it. Yes, there were girls from Maryland in their program, but they stayed in a different part of town, and as surprisingly as it was, they already knew Casey more than the four fellow Terps who were living in Nags Head.

Behrooz and Casey had friended each other on Facebook and exchanged a couple friendly IMs, many of them debating college basketball and the greatness of their respective teams. Now that Behrooz had subconsciously given up on her as a potential girlfriend and started to see her as a simple pal, he naturally let his guard down. He found himself laughing out loud during their conversation and loved Casey's sense of humor and occasional sarcasm. They had more in common that he had first thought. Like Behrooz, Casey's philosophy was work hard and play hard. She was a computer science major at UNC who managed to do well in her challenging classes but her Facebook pictures, like the average college kid, nonetheless included some crazy weekends. Behrooz noted that she was also a country music fan, but before he could dwell on that thought, he saw the link to a group made for her group of friends spending the summer at the Outer Banks.

The first three seemed pretty cool and reasonably good looking, but nothing particiuarly special. They were just a bunch of typical college girls, though Behrooz would be lucky if he could get with any of them. Allison Friedman, the brunette with curly hair and greenish eyes was originally from Richmond, Virginia, and was a marketing major. Her profile said she was Jewish, so the very fact that "Robbie" was considering her and looking over her profile in detail said a lot about how far he had come since his Behrooz days. She was working here this summer at a local restaurant named Jockey Ribs, The second girl, Becca O'Malley, came from Rocky Mount in central North Carolina. She was a stunning redhead with a smile that would felt the hardest heart, except perhaps Navi's. She was a psychology major, a member of the Kappa Delta sorority, and her summer job besides working at the Travelodge front desk in Nags Head was doing some modeling for the Sears catalogue. Sadly, she was also taken by another guy.

Elyse Fuentes, a Mexican American, was a biology major who also hailed from Charlotte, though she was born on Long Island, New York and didn't move down South until the summer before high school and at heart she was still a Yankees fan. Her Facebook profile mentioned she felt bad for losing her Long Island accent. Behrooz had to smile at that, a cross between a New York and a Southern accent. He shrugged. She probably just sounds "normal" now, though he'll see when he meets her. Behrooz stopped as he saw the final girl in her group.

No, it couldn't be. The name read "Danielle McSpadden", but there was no mistakening this last girl with light brown hair and her quiet smile. At first Behrooz wanted to scream out loud in a mix of shock, anger, denial, and then wanted to bury his face in his hands, except he was too numb to get his hands to move. Finally, an overwhelming sadness came over him as he entered to view the profile, and some tears fell from his eyes. He ignored the salty taste of his own tears as he slowly scrolled down the screen to look at Danielle McSpadden's profile. There she was, still with the innocent look, that sweet, soft face, and that slightly quirky personality. The profile said Danielle was a secondary education major at UNC, originally from Missouri, that she, like the average girl nowadays, loved Hilary Duff, Avril Lavigne, and Kelly Clarkson's music, was obsessed about Real World and reality modeling shows, and watched every chick flick that Hollywood churned out. He remembered how the old Danielle Pendleton and her sister Debbie actually had a taste for Indian movies and world music. Here besides the usual pop artists, Eminem, 50 Cent, Dave Matthew's Band, and Green Day, her collection was mostly country. He linked to her MySpace profile and the song playing was by Leann Rimes. The government sure made her change a lot.

Behrooz couldn't believe the evil coinincidence. Here they both were, 3000 miles from Los Angeles, and yet they had to end up not only in the same town and within blocks of one another, but he had to talk to her friend and help arrange a get together. Behrooz cursed himself for ever listening to Marc about talking to a random girl, and blamed himself for having to choose that lifeguard in particular, but he couldn't even show it to his friends and colleagues here. This was the witness protection program. At the same time, though, he had always wanted to talk to Danielle since the day Debbie died in his house, poisoned and shot by his own mother. He always pictured how devastating it must have been for her, at least during his first two years in hiding.

One day, he finally asked Curtis, during one of their bimonthly meetings, to tell him the truth about what happened to the Pendleton family. Curtis actually asked him if he really wanted to know, and Behrooz had nodded. He described the agony and unbearable worry Danielle and her parents had as news reports of the San Gabriel Island meltdown and the EMP attack at the McLennon-Forster building took away the police's attention they had initially given to Debbie's disappearance. It was not until late when Dina Araz confessed to killing Debbie, given the time it took to focus on the nuclear reactors. Danielle's mother had literally screamed in denial, and several CTU agents had to help pull her from the floor as she sobbed uncontrollably. It was also the first time in Danielle's life that she had seen her father cry. She would never forget that moment, her father, always the macho man type, sitting on Debbie's bed, hugging her pillows, and weeping into them for hours.

Behrooz's instincts told him to just get in his car, go back to Maryland, and forget about his summer here, but there was just something that held him back. Maybe its because he felt he owed Danielle something, or perhaps it was because deep down, Behrooz knew that he had been hiding and running all of his life, and he was tired of it. He remembered how he was beaten by his father Navi into helping with Heller's kidnapping, and by the time he finally rebelled, that moment when he tried to get Debbie out of the house, it was too late. Curtis had never asked Danielle what she thought about him, but she had in fact been told that Behrooz had not only tried to save Debbie's life but that he had shot his own father in cold blood in order to avenge her death. He knew that Danielle would probably blame him for her sister's death, but prayed to God, the new Christian God the Shiraz family had introduced him to, that at least Danielle would make peace with him.

Behrooz knew that he had better not wait for them to meet at the happy hour he was going to with his friends, classmates, and the girls. He felt like a coward, but Behrooz went on Facebook and sent a friend request to Danielle. While Behrooz pretended everything was fine in front of his friends, he constantly checked the status of that e-mail, until he finally noticed Danielle on his friends list, and a message from her.

--

Danielle gasped as she saw the picture. No, there was no way they could keep this secret up and not show anything if she met him for the first time. The entire upbeat mood she had been in the past couple days suddenly crashed down and she felt this dread well up inside her, but yet she wanted to see Behrooz, and it needed to be away from her friends and none of her friends could ever find out how close they were to one another. She forced herself to type in the message box, "Outback tomorrow, 9:15."  
She knew she was taking a great leap of faith, but at this point she wasn't thinking of Behrooz as the person responsible for her sister's death, but rather as her old friend who had tried to save Debbie's life and risked everything to avenge her. She could not forgive him for being a terrorist, even if he was enslaved by his father, but she wasn't thinking along these lines just now.

--

Behrooz knew that Danielle wouldn't be at happy hour, since she was working at the restaurant at this time, which explained her message to him. He didn't' get much sleep the night before and felt sick on the boat today, and he knew it was not seasickness. His mind kept wandering off until Marc shouted loudly to get his attention as they pulled into the parking lot of Bentley's, a new bar that had just opened in town.

He forced himself to think positively, though the smell of burgers and onion rings from the place was nauseating to him today, though on any other day, it would have made his mouth water. He forced himself to forget the sickness in the stomach and he walked in with Brad, Kyle, Brian, and Marc, seeing that Casey was already waiting with three other girls. She greeted Behrooz, Kyle, and Marc with a nice grin as they sat down and the waiter came over. They quickly introduced one another and found a seat near a large TV which was broadcasting the USA vs. Dominican Republic baseball game from the London Olympics. Today was the first day of competition, and the next month would be great for all the sports fans here.

All of them ordered cups of Bud Lite and a variety of sandwiches.  
"This is really a guilty pleasure," said as she dipped her fried clams into Old Bay cocktail sauce, Elyse said, "Now I gotta work out extra hard at the gym tonight."  
"Oh, don't' worry, I eat stuff like that all the time," Kyle said, "I still look fine."  
Casey rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. "Just wait till you're 40, Kyle."

Behrooz was the first to laugh, and everyone followed.  
"So the four of ya'll got your own house?" Brad Scarlatti asked between sips of his beer.  
"There's one other girl, Dani, but she's working tonight. She's real nice, you'll meet her soon enough," Allison replied.

They talked about how the guys were spending the summer at the research project while Allie was waitressing at the Jockey Ribs' place, Elyse was a sales clerk at a swimwear store, while Becca worked at the front desk of Travellodge. Behrooz could see Brad's eyes mesmerized by Becca, and he was too, though he knew he could never completely focus on the current situation.


	5. Because of You

REMINDER: In this story, Behrooz Araz and Danielle Pendleton (sister of Behrooz's dead girlfriend Debbie) are both in the witness protection program with the assumed names of Robbie Shiraz and Danielle McSpadden, respectively

REMINDER: In this story, Behrooz Araz and Danielle Pendleton (sister of Behrooz's dead girlfriend Debbie) are both in the witness protection program with the assumed names of Robbie Shiraz and Danielle McSpadden, respectively.

CHAPTER 5: Because of You

"Jesus, I can't believe that happened," Behrooz said, looking at the TV where the Dominican players made a double play, ending the 3rd inning, with Team USA down by one run. "Baseball's the American pastime, man."

"Yeah, Robbie here's a real patriot, always into the all-American thing," Marc explained, not knowing if was because Behrooz knew he owed so much to America, not just for the freedom he enjoyed in contrast to Iran, but for the things he had done against this country in collusion with his parents and Marwan's group.  
"I'll be honest, yeah I know my parents are Iranian, but this is my country and I'm not gonna feel sorry for terrorists or illegal immigrants or whatever."  
"Like me," Brian said, "My background's Chinese but I'm as pissed as anyone else about what they're trying to do with Sunbelt Airlines," he said, referring to recent headlines about the Chinese government's moves to purchase a major Texan company, in a repeat of the UNOCOL and Dubai World Ports deals.

"Yeah, that's good," Becca said approvingly as she sipped on her beer and squeezed ketchup onto her fries. "My cousin's in the Air Force and he's stationed in the Middle East, so its really refreshing to hear that ya'll think like that."  
"Well, thanks a lot for his service to the country, you know," Behrooz said.  
"Oh, no problem, his pleasure. You can't imagine how proud he is to be over there, going on those air patrols over Iran and Iraq, its not something a lot of people understand."

"As for this freaking game," Behrooz said, changing back to original subject, "Its really cheap cause half those Dominican guys play major league in the U.S. Like this Fernandez dude who plays for the Cardinals, the same guy who said all that crap about the O's on SportsCenter, we gave him a chance to play, we practically trained him and made him what he is"  
"Damn straight," Marc chimed in as Behrooz finished, "And this guy stabs us in the back, going back to his own country. Just like those Russians and Czechs with the NHL, it freaking pisses me off."  
"Yeah, I know," Casey said, "Back in Athens, the entire Greek baseball team was Greek Americans, its like since they were holding the Olympics they HAD to have a home team and all their own guys suck. And Team USA got stuck with all the crappy players once everyone goes back to Greece or the Dominican Republic or Japan or whatever." She paused. "Though to be honest, I'm pissed about baseball, but we probably wouldn't have much of a pro hockey scene here in the U.S. if we didn't import those Russians."  
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Behrooz said.  
"Good point," Marc added. He frowned at Behrooz, cause he knew he was trying to suck up to her, only hoping that Kyle wasn't noticing it.

"Yeah, Robbie here definitely ain't the typical Middle Eastern guy," Marc said, finding something to say while they still had both Becca and Casey's attention. "He's one of the best beer pong players I know. And Robbie, why don't you tell them what music you listen to?"  
"I'm mostly a country fan, actually," Behrooz said a little sheepishly.  
"Oh yeah, I LOVE country!" Casey said excitedly. "I actually saw your favorite artists on Facebook. I'm like so obsessed about Kenny Chesney too. Its not weird for you to like it. You really shouldn't listen to those stereotypes. I've got a really good friend who's Asian and she's a hardcore fan. At school she actually wears a cowgirl hat as she watches CMT, and I think that's really, like, totally cool. So how did you get into it?"

The truth was that Behrooz wanted to be a completely different person after he entered the witness protection program, and much of it had to do with the guilt he felt hearing what Debbie's family had gone through following her death, watching the devastating news reports from the San Gabriel Island nuclear reactor, and hearing Audrey's painful testimony of how the day's events led to the deaths of both her separated husband and her new boyfriend. However, the government agents who set up his new identity actually made him listen to a lot of country, pop, R&B, and Adult Contemporary as a way of rehabilitating him. The logic went, flawed or not, that if listening to Metallica got some people to attempt suicide and listening to Eminem got other to shoot up their school, perhaps the reverse was true.

To his own shock, Behrooz found it working. During the five years he lived in the U.S. prior to that fateful day, most of the music he listened to came from anti-establishment groups like Green Day, Anti-Flag, Metallica, heavy metal bands, rappers, and also ethnic styles like Latin rock and Indian music, which affected one prism through which he experienced the world. Debbie also had a love for Indian music, especially the Punjabi movement that started in London and was brought to the West Coast by Indian and Pakistani immigrants. For someone who was planning death and destruction for five years, the death metal portion of his collection especially was relevant. Now, by listening to the gentle twang of everyday college boy Kenny Chesney or the lovely voices of the SheDAISY sisters and their pleasant, humorous, even if slightly kitchsy videos, he found another side of America.

He still remembered in the FBI facility in Maryland, examining the different CDs her minder, a rookie he remembered simply as Ellie, had given him. One cover for a Leann Rimes CD really struck him. The front had the young blond singer in an everyday outfit sitting comfortably on some steps in from of a house, while back showed the singer in a reddish pink tank top with jeans with a faded out background of trees and an open pasture. He remembered listening to it and how one particular song, titled "You take Me Home", particularly made an impression on him. It wasn't one of Leann Rimes's multiple Top 40 hits that was played on both the country, pop, and mix stations nationwide, but one line particularly fasicainted him:

"You take me to front porch swings, Momma singing cheatin' heart. Yeah what a rush catching lightning bugs in a mason jar. You take me to county fairs, bedtime prayers, old wooden rocking chairs and all the things I love…"

Ironically, the song was about a girl from LA who discovers her roots back in that mythical "real America" you see in Norman Rockwell paintings, CMT videos, and orange juice and salad dressing commercials. The songs Behrooz heard on CMT and the local country station in Maryland were not even stereotypical "redneck" songs, though a few were to be sure. Many dealt with everyday people and everyday things like finding love, breakups, raising a family, watching your kids grow up, and having wild weekends at the beach, the bar, or the lake after a long week spent at the office and the freeway. What he experienced was just as real, perhaps even more real, than the world of death, mayhem, rebellion, anger, and desperation he and some of his friends in L.A. had surrounded themselves in. This was the America the protestors and detractors in the outside world, and many right at home, never care to see. To Behrooz, his new musical tastes helped him become a new person, a better person, a person devoid of all the hatred, anger, and resentment his parents had instilled in him. Of course he couldn't say all that right now.

"Well, a couple things. A lot of people in my family are actually country fans. See my dad and my uncle first settled in the Midwest when they came to this country," he began, which was true for the Shiraz family. "My cousins also got into it living in Utah, so it was always kinda in the background when I was growing up. But it was my girlfriend who really got me into it. She kept on talking how great Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley were, so I had to see for myself, so there you go."

"You still with her?" Casey asked.  
"No," Behrooz replied with a trace of lament, "She transferred schools, went to this smaller college up in Pennsylvania, and she found a new guy up there. But that's life, you know."  
"Don't worry," Casey said, trying to comfort him, "You'll always get another chance at finding someone, that's how it works. You know that song, Somebody, by Reba McEntire."  
"Yeah, I do," said Behrooz.  
"So, like it says there, it could be anyone. You never know, could be surprised."

Behrooz felt better that night. He began to put the Danielle meeting in the back of his mind as happy hour went on, and they all became mesmerized by the game even as they all became more drunk, though not too drunk since Becca had to work that night at the hotel and this was only a weekday, after all. The Americans eventually came back with a vengeance, beating the Dominican team 15-8 and Marc nearly got in a fight with Elyse over a Yankees player on Team USA since Marc, a fanatical Orioles fan like Behrooz, never forgot one particularly nasty incident involving that player at third base at Baltimore's Camden Yards several months ago. Kyle and Casey chatted constantly the rest of the evening and by the time they all went home around 8:00, a party was already planned in the guys' condo involving their research program students, and all of the girls were invited. Yet as the clock ticked toward 9:30, the dread tied a knot into his stomach once again. There was not turning back, Behrooz thought as he got into his car alone and made a left turn onto the US Highway 158 Bypass, or Croatan Highway, the primary commercial strip through Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, and Nags Head.

--

Behrooz thought about what he was about to do as he saw the lights of the restaurants, hotels, gas stations, and shopping centers whizzed by. He loved being on the road, whether tearing down the interstate at 80mph or going through Anywhere, USA, like he was now. You always knew where you are going and how you could get there. You always had a map, or looked up directions on Mapquest, and had those huge green signs to guide you, he thought as he stayed within the newly painted dashed white lines on this stretch of roadway, keeping a safe distance from the station wagon in front of him. Life isn't so simple, he knew. There weren't really clear lines to stay within, or a clear way to do things. Yeah, life's a journey, but it's a journey where you never know when the next turn will take you. Behrooz really didn't know if what he was doing was the right thing, but deep down, he knew that he had to do it.

He found an empty spot next to the Outback Steakhouse restaurant and walked into the front door, the only person to do so alone.  
"Sir, takeout's over in the back, to the left," the host, a middle aged man, said politely.  
"Actually, I'd like a table. I was wondering if Danielle could be my server tonight. I met her at the beach yesterday"  
The man smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that explains things."  
Behrooz followed him as he was led to a small, two-person table by a window with a view of the giant sand dunes at Jockey Ridge State Park. "She'll be with you shortly." He gave him a wink. "Good luck, she's quite a girl."

Behrooz knew this was the most inconspicuous way to set up a first meeting, though he doubted Tomas Sherek's family's hired ex-KGB spies actually followed him to the North Carolina coast.

Danielle knew this was it the moment she heard this single college-age guy had requested that she be his server. "Yeah, I did meet him yesterday," she said, not completely lying. It WAS the first time Danielle McSpadden met Robbie Shiraz, but do past lives count? Inside, she was torn between a mix of emotions, but here, she had to act natural, at least for the next hour that the restaurant was still open.  
She didn't know what to say at first. "Hey, you waiting for someone?"  
"No, actually. Just had a long day, needed some time by myself," Behrooz replied.  
"I could take your order now, then," Danielle said.  
Behrooz flipped through the menu. "You know, I just need something light right now, been to happy hour already at this bar."  
"Yeah, I know that feeling," Danielle replied, "Just unwinding after an…eventful day."  
Nobody else was paying attention to them, which was good. It was just a waitress making small talk with a customer, and it was natural since they were the same age and he was alone.  
"I'll have some Walkabout soup, plus the Shrimp on the Barbie, and iced tea….no, I mean, I'm sorry, some apple juice."  
"That's all?" she asked, polite but not giving away any emotions.  
"Yeah. Thanks."

Dammit, Behrooz thought. Why did he have to say iced tea? She could glimpse a slight change in Danielle's expression as she entered the kitchen, then she went out of sight. By now Danielle must know about the happy hour with her friends and how he was living in the Sea Ranch Condos, within view of Casey's house.

"You good?" one of the cooks asked in a Spanish accent.  
"Yeah," Danielle replied, composing herself and splashing her face with some water.  
"You look like…you know…something no right, you know?" the Mexican said.  
"Just been a long day for me," Danielle replied, "Had trouble sleeping last night."  
That was good enough for the cook, who went back to work making Behrooz's soup, but right now Danielle couldn't wait to get alone with Behrooz so they could stop pretending. She wanted to hug him, to comfort him after everything they went through together, but at the same time she just wanted to punch him out, even kill him, for what happened to Debbie. Danielle was learning not to blame herself for Debbie's death, but if it wasn't her fault, it must be Behrooz's, right? As she brought him the soup, she whispered, "I'm off in a half hour. The dune outside."

They met in the parking lot, and since they supposedly knew each other, nobody really became curious as they walked silently away from the restaurant toward Jockey Ridge, the giant sand dune on the sound side. When they reached the sands, a desolate landscape eerily similar to Turkey and Iran, Behrooz finally spoke.  
"I never thought I'd see you again, Dani. I know this wasn't supposed to happen."

The wind was picking up, and Behrooz her face and her light brown hair blown into the air, lit only by the pale moon, the light glow from the commercial strip blocked off by the sand, and the smattering of floodlights from the docks that lined the sound side of Kill Devil Hills. It was a beautiful, yet ghastly image, like she was a ghost or something. He had to tell himself it was really Danielle, and not Debbie's ghost. Behrooz used to believe in ghosts, in what in Islam was known as "jinn", or the evil spirits the terrorists in Marwan's group had talked about and cursed in their prayers. Even then, he didn't actually believe in "real" ghosts. The evil spirits Marwan spoke out on of course were the Americans, British, Israelis and other "infidels".

Behrooz calmed himself by focusing on her uniform. He had just seen her in it minutes ago, and Debbie's ghost wouldn't be wearing an Outback Steakhouse pin.  
"I really don't know what to say…uh…Robbie," Danielle said. Her voice was a complete monotone, devoid of any emotion, and her eyes looked at him, unflickering, also expressionless.

"You don't have to say anything right now. I know how weird this is for us to be here. I….I'm not going to make any excuses. I still blame myself everyday for what happened back in L.A." The silence was thankfully broken briefly by the out of an outboard motor and some sea gulls that passed by in the night sky.

"I know, Robbie, Agent Manning told me everything about you, what your father did to you, and how you tried to save my sister."  
"He did? About…" Behrooz choked, "About how my mom lied to me and told me everything was going to be fine?"

For some reason, words came more easily now. Danielle was surprised that the anger she had felt only ten minutes ago was hidden deep inside, and part of her was even glad to be seeing her old friend. It wasn't Behrooz's fault what happened, she told herself. He had no control over what his dad did. It was just fate that they had to meet in the first place, and while she hated fate for bringing their families together, she found it hard to hate Behrooz personally, at least right now. After all, even before he started dating her sister, Danielle and Behrooz had been friends and classmates, part of the more low-key crowd at their school, mostly due to her shyness since she was amazing attractive.

"Yeah, he told me about that too. I'll be honest, Robbie. Seeing you here just brings back so much memories and I'm not happy about this right now, but I can't get myself to hate you," she finally said.  
"I don't know why the hell, in this entire world, we just have to end up two blocks apart, and I had to get to know your friends. This can't be happening. I don't believe in fate!" Behrooz said, his voice beginning to show a trace of defiance that echoed out into the emptiness of the watery night.  
"I know its not fair for either of us, but there's nothing we can do now. Robbie, I do want to talk to you more, after three years, but just not right now. This is all so new for me."

Danielle began walking slowly back toward her car, but then sat down in the sand at the base of the giant dune, letting her uniform get dirty and broke down crying. Behrooz slowly walked closer to her. "It's ok, Dani, you have every reason to feel that way." He took out some napkins he had placed in his pocket and handed it to her, their hands touching briefly.

"So you met my friends," Danielle finally said. "So I guess I'll be seeing a lot more of you."  
"Yeah," Behrooz replied, not knowing what else to say. "If its going to be difficult for you, I can go home, to Maryland. You deserve to enjoy your time this summer down here. Becca and Elyse were telling me earlier today about how your having so much fun here. I…" he didn't want to say it, but knew it was true. "You've already lost so much because of me. I'll understand if you want me to walk away and never see you again. I'll do it."

Danielle shook her head. "Its not right for all this to dictate our lives anymore. We've both lived a lie for the past three years, I don't want to go to the Feds or anyone with this. They screwed up, letting us end up in the same town. I think we both deserve a second chance."

Behrooz had never known Danielle to be a fighter, but here she was, defiant, going against what fate evidently had in store for her.  
"Nobody can ever know we even knew each other," Behrooz said. "We're gonna have to pretend we just met here to everyone we know."  
"I didn't tell anyone," Danielle replied, "That's why I chose this place. I was afraid I couldn't hide my emotions if we, you know, had this talk in Casey's living room."  
"I know," Behrooz said, nodding, "Thanks for being the smart girl you always were."  
Danielle actually took his hand as he helped her up from the sand and they walked to their cars in silence. "I'll see you around," she said.

Behrooz breathed out deeply as he saw the VW Beetle disappear around the sand dune. He talked toward the water, smelling the salt in the air and watching the cattails in the marshes wave with a gentle breeze. He knew all her anger and hate toward him would boil up sooner or later, but she was right. He was sick of running, and he was going to fight. It raised his spirits slightly that Curtis had in fact told Danielle the entire truth, and both he and Dani deserved some escape.

His cell phone suddenly beeped, and the display revealed a mobile IM from none other than Casey, asking if he had downloaded a particular Jason Aldean song she was trying to get into her music collection. Casey and all of her normal friends were such a world apart, Behrooz thought, but no matter what, if only to prove to Danielle and himself, that he was much more than what his father wanted him to be, he would enter that world, and embrace it. Like he has since the day Robbie Shiraz came into being.


	6. Nights I Can't Remember

CHAPTER 6: Nights I Can't Remember With Friends I'll Never Forget

CHAPTER 6: Nights I Can't Remember With Friends I'll Never Forget

The next couple days weren't particularly eventful, except for the research program taking Behrooz, Marc, and the other students out into the open ocean for some dolphin watching and some lectures at the North Carolina Aquarium in Manteo, on Roanoke Island just west of Nags Head, plus some more friendly time spent with the girls next door. The girls a block and a half away to be exact, but whatever, Behrooz thought to himself. He especially still had the sights for Casey and Allison, having resigned to the fact that Becca was Marc's target and he didn't want to screw things up for his best friend. Behrooz and Casey talked extensively online about whether Rascal Flatts and Lonestar sounded the same and whether they boycotted the Dixie Chicks. Behrooz simply never cared to listen to them since by the time he became a country fan, the boycott was already in effect. Casey told him that while at the time she didn't agree with their comments, it was stupid in her opinion to ban a CD just cause the singers had a different opinion. She told him that while she was relatively middle of the road politically, and that while she planned to vote for James Heller in the next election, she also greatly admired David Palmer.

On Thursday, Casey and Danielle were actually nice enough to give Behrooz some lessons with his surf board. Danielle was still trying to deal with her conflicting feelings and deep inside she pleaded that Casey not decide to socialize with Behrooz, but she couldn't show that anything was wrong. Behrooz, Marc, and Brian were still in the water when Casey got off duty that afternoon and she went over with her own board, getting Danielle to follow her.

"You gotta go further out, guys!" Casey said in her usual upbeat, energetic tone, pointing into the water. "It's a lot better where you see the water starting to clear up, that way you don't get all those pebbles and seashells scraping up your butt."  
Behrooz was visibly nervous.  
"Don't worry about the sharks, remember?" Casey said, rushing into the surf herself and letting the refreshing water soak up her hair. "I know it seems more dangerous cause its deeper, but the waves are actually much stronger when they strike the shallow part there," she continued pointing.

Never one to say no to a girl, especially one like her, Behrooz followed her advice, and sure enough, while the next wave looked like it might crash over his head, it actually carried him quite a ways but it was a smooth ride. He had to go back for more.

"You'll learn fast. Dani here never went to the beach that much as a kid, cause, you know, she lived in Missouri but she's really good now." Danielle made a 360 degree turn as the wave went over her but she still ended up upright somehow. It really warmed Behrooz's heart to see Dani so happy three years after Debbie's death, and he could never tell Casey how much he appreciated her for helping his old friend through the toughest time in her young life. As he soared over the waves carrying him toward the beach and saw the little kids building sandcastles and the boats on the horizon filled with people on deep-sea fishing tours, he was amazed at how much beauty there was in the world. He thought back to his days in Istanbul, Turkey, his mosque, and finally his dead parents Navi and Dina. They would never have understood someone like these girls he was with right now, not to mention Allison, the Jewish one, how such unique human beings they were and not just "whores" or "infidels". Perhaps the main reason why his mom never wanted to get to know Debbie was that she was afraid it would cloud her conviction in the beliefs Habib Marwan had spoken out weekly at their radical mosque.

Behrooz was afraid Kyle might suspect he was trying to get with Casey, which he wasn't, but some guys were paranoid and he didn't know Kyle well enough to know if he was that kind of guy. Yet they all ended up at the girls' house that evening too, watching the tennis matches, where Anna Kournikova cried in front of the entire world after a humiliating defeat by Venous Williams. Of course, Behrooz and Becca were the most patriotic, showing the most emotion as the camera showed the tennis star tugging at her Team USA uniform and the American fans in the stands went wild.

"You know, man," Behrooz said to Marc as they walked back to the condo, "I never thought me saying hi to Casey that day would have led to all this."  
"Dude, what's the problem?" his friend asked, "We got five great chicks we're tight with now and they're coming over on Friday night. What more is there to it?"  
"I don't know, I just didn't' think anything would come out of it.

Friday night came quickly and the condo was packed with college kids from the research program, plus Danielle and her friends and Matt Mastranstuoni himself, who had to split his time between Kyle and his girlfriend. Brad Scarlatti basically ran the party and set up two kegs, one with Miller Lite and one with Yuengling's, and there was also plenty of Captain Morgan, Smirnoff vodka, and Cruzan Strawberry Rum, the kind that Kenny Chesney supposedly promoted. Suddenly, Behrooz found himself back at school, and this might as well be one of the house parties back in College Park, Maryland. The units on either side were not rented out, so they had little worry about anyone calling the police and complaining about the noise.

Behrooz saw that Matt and Casey were clearly in love as they lay in the couch together, sharing a drink as Matt massaged her shoulders and ran his hands across the smooth, shiny skin of her face. Behrooz suddenly felt pained as he once again thought that this could have been him and Debbie if only….No, he wasn't going to think like this now. He remembered what his shrink had told him, and focused on the party. It was Friday night, after all.

"What are you doing? Chug it!" Brad called out to Behrooz, who was sitting on a couch with Marc and Brian, waiting for their turn to play beer pong on the large table that was in the center of the room. Some people were dancing to the music, but Behrooz was never a fan of classic rock and he hated rap/hip hop. At least Robbie Shiraz did. Back in Maryland, he actually performed some rap just to prove how bad he was at it, but it quickly became an inside joke, one that was going to haunt him tonight. It was a rap where his alter ego was a gangsta from Baltimore who rolled through "da streetz" in his Coupe DeVille pimpin' hoes and smokin' weed.

An hour, two beers, and two shots of Kentucky Gentleman whiskey later, Behrooz was buzzed up and just staring at all the females at the party when Brad, the de facto main host, came toward his second of the room, saying, "Hey guys, Matt is completely passed out on the floor and he and Casey are still up for beer pong, she needs a new partner. Its only their first game up and it would suck if she gets crossed off."  
"You go, Robbie, you need to get more wasted tonight. And bust some rhymes while you're there."

Casey was there holding her spot when Behrooz finally showed up. He had never seen her like this before, but she wasn't that different from any girl at a party.  
"C'mon Robbie, you ready?" she asked playfully, "We need to kick Brad's a!"

Brad and Brian were partners this time, and they were the defending champions so they got to shoot first, trying to bounce the ping pong ball into the beer cups. Brian made one in and Behrooz had to drink all the beer in that cup.

Behrooz began to feel unsure of himself. His performance at beer pong, also known as "Beirut" at some schools, was mixed, and he hoped tonight was one of his good night. He aimed carefully and shot, the ball making a perfect splash into one of the target cups, and he saw Brad drink it up. Brian began to make funny hand motions, trying to distract Casey, but she maintained her composure and arced the ball over, hitting the rim of a cup but landing in the one next to it, winning their team additional turns. Luckily for Behrooz, Brian and Brad got their attention taken away as the boom box began playing their favorite song, "Ridin' Dirty" by Charmillionaire and Krazie Bone. Behrooz bounced the ball in, which meant they had to drink two cups.

"Wow, we're SUCH a great team!" Casey said, giving Behrooz a high five. He knew Casey's boyfriend was right here in the same room, but even if he could never "get with" her beyond being just friends, even an experience like this was one that he truly treasured. Even three years ago, recovering after years of abuse and brainwashing by his parents, he could never have pictured himself like this, playing beer pong with an exceptionally pretty girl. They won this game and the next two, but then as the party started to wind down a bit and it seemed like the kegs would be tapped soon, they were challenged by the second-best team of the evening, consisting of two students from Wisconsin-Madison named Lucas and Michelle.

"Yo, now's the time for the distraction. We gotta win this for the ACC," Marc said, referring to the athletic conference both their and Casey's school belonged to. Wisconsin played in the Big Ten.  
"Hey, do that rap of yours, c'mon," Lucas said, drunk while Michelle tried to get him to calm down, the four shots of tequila chased with beers making her job sufficiently difficult.

"Yeah, you know that song, Ridin' Dirty, I got my own version of it," Behrooz said.  
Casey looked excited. "Yeah, I like rap once in a while, its fun. C'mon."  
She bounced the ball and caught Lucas off guard but Michelle swipped it away. "Hey, we're used to that trick," Michelle said with a grin that was much more friendly than disdainful.

Behrooz said, "You know, I made up my Persian version of that rap, its called Flyin' Dirty."  
There were bursts of loud laughter from around the room.  
"Let's here it!" Marc shouted as Michelle took aim with the ball but stopped for a second as Behrooz began.  
"They see me travelin', they hatin…inspectin' and screenin' and trying to catch me flyin' dirty…."

The laughter multiplied and Michelle found it hard to focus on her shot, and it went wide. Casey's next one went in though Behrooz missed. His rap went on, "My turban's so big, I pray to Allah….they got a problem cause think I jihad, cause my homie Habib, and they detain my Turkish azz at da security, cause they think if they messin with me they doin' sumthin' bout the jihad. But guys like Habib go through, f da police, f CTU, he got his AK-47s, nobody stand a chance…"  
Michelle and Lucas were laughing silly now and Behrooz took his time and carefully bounced the ball in. Lucas's final shot went wide and Casey's last one skimmed the rip, but then went it.

"Good game," Behrooz said, an uncharacterstic gentlemen, reaching across the table and shaking hands with their opponents, and Casey did the same.  
"Wow, this was soooooo fun," Casey said as she and Behrooz sat down together on a couch.  
Behrooz realized that this night, even more so than other party nights back at school, he had completely forgotten about all the terror and grief in his past and just lived for the moment, and he wished it could just be this way forever. He looked at his new friend's, making sure she didn't know he was also staring at her soft, shiny, slightly wavy blonde hair, which had always fascinated him.  
"Yeah, I don't know how I managed to make all those tonight," Behrooz said.

"Next time, when Matt's not around, you're definitely my partner."  
"And you gotta finish giving me those surfing lessons."

Casey chuckled at her memory of Behrooz's first attempts on the waves last time on the beach. "Maybe."


	7. Something's Gotta Give

Here it is

_Here it is. This chapter is going to be the turning point and probably the halfway point to this story. While this is a softer installment I'm not looking forward to have to get to the part eventually when Behrooz and Danielle eventually have to confront their past. _

CHAPTER 7: Something's Gotta Give

Behrooz had a slight hangover from last night, and he knew the best thing for him to do was take those Wendy's coupons and go for a Classic Triple combo with large fries and a side salad, but he just couldn't get himself to walk the three blocks to the concentration of fast food outlets on US-158. It was already early afternoon and while his friends were still passed out, he decided to go for a walk on the beach to burn off some of those extra calories from the alcohol, and from the bag of M&M's he had gotten at Sea Ranch's lobby vending machine to help with his stomach. A can of Coors Lite had almost twice as many calories than a can of Coke, and he didn't even know how much he had drank last night, especially during his six-game beer pong winning streak with Casey. She had actually not gotten too drunk since she didn't take that many shots before beer pong and had decided to dance to the music earlier instead of playing other drinking games.

He felt his nausea from the hangover coming back to him and he sat down on a wooden bench not far from the lifeguard stand where Casey was sitting at now. Yep, Saturdays and Sundays were two of the days when she was stationed in this particular stand, and it was here that he had first met her. He was within earshot of her but decided to rest for a moment first, but soon fell asleep in the shade until a cacophony of kids' voices woke him up.

It was a family with three kids who were evidently staying at either the Days Inn or the Sea Ranch, and he saw one boy was wailing about a cut on his leg while emerging from a fenced off plot of sandy land with native plants. The father, man with sandy colored hair wearing a Hawaiian shirt, walked down some wooden steps to Casey's stand and said angrily in either a New York or Boston accent, "Hey, you people should have signs there sayin its dangerous. I hope my kid doesn't get some kind of infection. And there ought to be more of you observing them."

Casey looked at him and replied in a completely uncharactericly impatient tone, "We're not responsible for those parts, you should talk to the hotel people about it. Plus there ARE people who look over your kids. They're called parents."

Behrooz saw him fume as he sent his kid, Bobby, back to his mom who was getting something from their Massachusetts-plated station wagon. Wow, I'm good at telling apart these accents, he told himself. It was hard to distinguish New York from Boston, since both places were filled with equally brash, arrogant, self-absorbed, and otherwise unpleasant people, and this man right here was just a perfect example. It seems kind, civil, mild-mannered people like Curtis Manning were a rarity in Boston, and Agent Manning himself was raised by Midwestern parents, which probably explained why he was different.

The soccer dad sat down across from Behrooz, taking out some bread to feed the pelicans and sea gulls and remarked loudly to Behrooz, "Can you just believe that?? Some service they got here. You pull that kind of crap at my neighborhood pool, you're gone."

Behrooz paused and popped some extra M&M's into his mouth, feeling better slightly now as his stomach became less empty. He took a deep breath and replied, "I know, but maybe she's just having a really bad day. She's human, after all."  
"But she can't just treat me and my kid that way, and whatever's going on in her life has nothing to do with her job here so…"  
"I'm not trying to defend that, but my mom actually works in customer service," Behrooz said, referring to Mrs. Shiraz in Maryland, "She manages a sports club, like so many places it's the customer's always right, and while she's got this great reputation, even she has some days when she's got some personal issues, where she loses it. Happens to the best of us, you know."

The man nodded grudgingly. "I guess so." He didn't want to admit that he was a project manager at a graphics design company and sometimes acted as if he had the right to yell at anyone beneath him whenever he felt like it. Now that he's had some moments to calm down, he thought maybe he shouldn't have just snapped at that lifeguard, and that the bumper-to-bumper traffic that stretched from the Hampton Roads area in Virginia all the way to the Outer Banks had put him in a foul mood in a way even the backups in Boston's Big Dig couldn't. Of course he was too proud to admit this as well.

"Besides, you're at the beach. Can't you do without life in the fast lane just for a couple days?" Behrooz asked in a way that made the man grin a bit. Behrooz had only started to use American expressions like these in the past couple years and now felt quite comfortable, which rose his own spirits a bit. The further away he could get from his past and his parents, the better.  
"Yeah, you got a point," the man said, getting up, "I'm gonna go talk to hotel management about putting those signs up."

Several minutes later, Marc called Behrooz to say he was still too tired from the night before to grab food at Wendy's like they had previously agreed, so Behrooz simply decided to go to one of those smaller convenience stores that dotted Beach Road every couple blocks. He was half a block north of the Sea Ranch when she heard Casey's voice behind him. "Hey Robbie, wait a sec!"

She seemed exhausted and the usual contagious exuberance wasn't there, but she began jogging and picked up the pace. Behrooz stopped in front of a small estuarine inlet that reached in from Albemarle Sound on the other side of Kill Devil Hills, then took a couple steps toward Casey. It was quiet now a couple yards from the road could hear her panting as they met one another.

"Hey, Robbie," she said, giving him a smile that seemed forced, "I just want to say thanks for sticking up for me back there. It really means a lot."  
"Don't sweat it. You're my friend, its all cool."  
She nodded. "Yeah, I really appreciate it."  
"Is something bothering you today?" he asked, showing his concern.  
She sighed and closed her eyes.  
"You don't have to tell me. I was just wondering if there's anything I can do to help."

Casey jogged up next to them, then they both started to walk at a leisurely pace.  
"I broke up with Matt last night," she said.

It happened around 1AM, after the party had ended cause the rooms next door to their condo were checked out at the last moment and the guests complained about the noise. Casey, Danielle, their friends, and Matt had gone back to her cottage. Most of the girls except for Danielle were quite wasted and went to bed while Matt decided to lay down on the couch for a second since he felt nauseous from drinking so much. During a half hour interval, Matt's cell phone kept on ringing repeatedly until Casey picked it up and saw multiple messages.

"Yeah, go for it," Matt had said drunkenly as she offered to listen to them for him. It was a disaster.  
"Hey, its Autumn," an ultra-hyper female voice, possibly high on weed, had said, "Mia just told me you went to see Casey? Man, she's so boring, I mean I missed you at our party here tonight, we could be having such a great time right now, like all those times during the year. You're missing out, and Casey's just a boring, goody goody girl. You did it with that Russian girl Ludmilla last time, I can't believe I'm not good for you anymore.

This news had hit Casey like a hammer, and all the joy she felt from the party immediately dissipated and was replaced by an indescribable anger and a deep hollowness inside. Right now, though, she was exhausted, hopeless, and heartbroken. After all these years, she had been faithful to him and she had given him a second chance after the first time Matt had fooled around. Now, she not only actually had to listen to some random hippie type girl brag about how Matt had gotten in bed with her multiple times in the past, but also find out that in addition to her, Matt had also hooked up with an exotic exchange student and God knows how many others. Of course, Matt had tried to explain himself, but he was too drunk to lie and said that he was high both times and that Ludmilla and Autumn had both seduced him.

"I can't believe how he could do that to a girl like you, especially for those kinds of people," Behrooz told her.  
"I can't either," Casey replied, wiping away a tear. "What I wanted most of all was honesty, to have trust. I can't have a relationship without that. Maybe Autumn and Ludmilla can, but I'm not like that. And that b has the nerve to call me boring? Cause I want someone who really cares about me, not just treats me like a one night stand or some prize to show off."  
She paused. "Excuse me, I…I know I shouldn't' be saying all this to you, but its just…"  
"It's ok," Behrooz said, wanting to gently touch her shoulder and soothe her, but deciding smartly that this wasn't the right time. "You have every right to feel the way you do."

Behrooz at this moment was ashamed of himself for feeling a sense of hope upon hearing that she was no longer with Matt, but it genuinely pained him to see Casey like that. He wanted to go find Matt, beat the crap out of him, and call him an idiot for throwing away the best girlfriend he could have ever asked for.

"I kind of know how you feel," he said. "Losing Jen was really hard for me." He knew that what Casey was feeling now was nothing compared to what he had felt after Debbie's death, but he had to be Robbie right now, and the biggest romantic heartache in Robbie's life was losing his girlfriend Jen. Behrooz told himself that he was doing this just to help Casey, not to spend extra time with her or make a good impression with her, but there had been enough lies in his life. Then things suddenly began to dawn on him. He did genuinely want to help her, and truly felt bad for what she was going through, but the reason he felt that way was because he loved her. He had kept those feelings pent up when Casey and Matt were still together and tried denying those feelings, but he just realized that they had always been there, waiting to be let go.

They stopped as they reached a crosswalk with an orange hand signal.

"How long were you together with her?" Casey asked. She wasn't sure why, but deep down she was glad Behrooz was the first one she was having this conversation with. She could have waited a couple more minutes and had girl talk with her friends at the cottage, but none of them shared the same pain and loss that she was feeling now. They crossed the street and passed a TCBY store, with a sign advertising a special. She wanted to talk to him more and decided this was a convenient excuse. "I think I'm gonna get something. Been a long time since they had deals like this."  
"Yeah, sure," Behrooz replied, not knowing where this was going but he had no complaints. He thought about how far he had come since he first met her. At first, it was just a dare by Marc and Kyle to a "hot chick". She had been attractive, but she was just another nameless female lifeguard at the beach, until he finally got to know her on a personal level and discovered the little things that made her so special.

They enjoyed the blast of cool air as they walked through the door. Thankfully, the line moved quickly today and Casey and Behrooz both got the new mint flavor sprinled with chocolate chip cookies. Of course they both loved the sun, but the AC was certainly welcome, especially since Casey obviously was not in the mood to go surfing in the ocean today.

"Well, Jen and I were together for about two years. I met her my first day of school my freshman year, algebra class. You know how some people say on your first day, you find a nice looking chick, sit next to her, and all? Well I was literally running into the lecture hall five minutes late and just took the first seat I could find and it happened to be next to her."  
Casey nodded, expressing interest in his story. Behrooz knew this was just a story he had rehearsed dozens of times with the FBI and CTU, up to the point where he believed it himself. On the deepest level, it wasn't a lie, just a less harrowing version of how he lost the only girl he had truly had deep feelings for in his life.

"She glimpsed my schedule, and we found out we had two other classes together, so we decided head to those together too, and you know, it got started from there. We were great study buddies, then we went out to the movies and dinner a couple of times."

He told her about how Jen had transferred to a small school in New Jersey since she felt more comfortable in a more intimate setting compared with the gigantic campus and student body at the University of Maryland, and because it was closer to her home in upstate New York.

"I went up there to visit her a couple times first semester last year," Behrooz said, "But I knew we were growing apart, and I had to accept that there was a chance it wasn't going to work out. I was like…" Behrooz paused, "We just grew more distant. She talked to me less online as she became more involved at her new school, and since we didn't' live anywhere close to one another… I don't know."

"Yeah, I know feeling, living apart's always hard," Casey said sadly, "We're close by for the summers, but the school year gets rough sometimes, being apart like that. Becca told us about her cousin in the Air Force stationed in the Middle East, and how he lost his fiancée that way. Its not that they didn't love each other or that they didn't try, its just…at first Becca wanted to kill that woman for breaking her cousin's heart while he's serving abroad, but to be honest, I got that feeling sometimes, and it was actually easier knowing we still had the summers together. I'd be lying if there hasn't been times when me and my friends are at a party, or at the bars, and I envied them so much for always having someone to dance with, or hold their hand walking down the sidewalk."

"That's the way it was with Jen," Behrooz told her, "Her roommate eventually introduced her to someone new, this grad student who grew up near her. I knew I was fighting a losing battle. Yeah, after two years, you think you actually have a chance. Anyway, she just told me she found someone knew, this guy Chad, and there wasn't anything I could say. Even if I drove up to Jersey and tried to win her back, what good would it do?"  
They were too similar, Casey thought and told him about her story. Matt had been everything to her, and he had swore to God, and even swore on the Carolina Panthers' winning streak, that he felt the same way about her.

They went to the senior prom together and Casey narrowly missed being elected one of the four prom queens at their school. Yeah, there were four cause their high school wanted to be fair and not have a single girl come out on top, but he had given her the best prom night anyone could ever have asked for. Her conversation with Behrooz continued as they finished their ice cream and walked back into the summer heat, heading for her cottage.

After they had gone to different colleges, Casey had actually talked with her friends about what it would be like to introduce herself as "Mrs. Winemiller-Mastranstuoni", what a mouthful that was, and what they could name their kids to go well with that. If had been so funny, those times in the dining halls and dorm rooms and out in the sunny quads on campus, but it tore her up to recall them now. She had actually thought in those terms while most of her friends were still eager to hit the bars every Thursday night trying to get a boy that would remember them the next day. Casey wanted to ask Behrooz if he knew who "Autumn" and "Ludmilla" were but were afraid of the answers, and of course Behrooz didn't want to tell because it would only hurt her more. Autumn was a hippie-type girl who participated in every single protest on campus and smoked weed on a daily basis and felt the need for "sexual liberation" while Ludmilla was an exotic, blonde international student from somewhere in the former Soviet Union and the target of many athletes, frat boys, and wannabe frat boys. Marc had taught Behrooz that a girl like her was good for screwing around with, but for a serious relationship, you wanted a down home, girl next door type. Like Casey's type. Marc had also said one of the few truly insightful things to come out of his mouth. He told Behrooz, in a flat out serious tone, that once you got such a girl, you had better stop screwing around. Marc himself had lost the girl of his dreams, a small-town beauty from Western Maryland that way and didn't want his friend to go through the same. By now, Behrooz and Casey had reached the cottage.

"You can come in," Casey said as he turned to leave. "Remember you wanted to borrow my new Emerson Drive CD, the one you couldn't download?"

Behrooz recovered from the sort of shock he felt. Neither him, Brad, Marc, or any of their crew had ever come into the girls' house before. "Yeah, thanks."

Danielle was in the living room, sitting on a comfortable sofa watching a re-run of Real World-Seattle on a rather large plasma TV when she saw Behrooz. "Hey, Robbie," she said, her eyes a little cold and distant this time, and he could tell her shock at him actually being inside this cottage.  
The cottage wasn't as ridiculously huge as many of the others around here, and it wasn't in one of those gated developments, but it was pleasant as well. The walls were decorated with many beach and countryside scenes with pictures of lighthouses, seascapes, fishing boats, and old sailing ships as well as sports paraphaneila, mostly from the Charlotte area. Casey took her upstairs to her room and opened the door.

Behrooz made a mental note to himself to clean his own room before this girl ever saw it, given now neat and clean everything was in here. He saw her desk filled with pictures of her family and friends from high school and college, and even one from childhood where she was a "cheerleader" for her brother's Little League baseball team. She had such a fortunate life, Behrooz thought to himself. Everything about this room, the pictures, the beach scenes, chick flick posters, and music and sports banner that decorated the walls let out an aura of contentness. She went behind her bed and picked up a small tank, introducing Behrooz to her two little hamsters, Sparks and Mitch, letting Behrooz hold them.

Behrooz realized how despite their different life experiences, how similar he and Casey were at heart. The draw to the water, their love of animals, the music they enjoyed, and their worldview of sometimes just taking a step back, letting the wind blow past you and savoring life as it goes by. He felt a deep warmth and a kind of joy that had eluded him for so long as he saw this girl smile at now good he was with her little pets.  
"Mitch there seems kinda attached to you," she said laughing.

He held the hamster close and rubbed its back, which it seemed to enjoy, before placing him gently back into the tank. All of his childhood, he had been taught to hate and kill, and Behrooz felt every little thing he did, even like right now, was part of making up for what he had done in the past and the secrets that he could never let out. Casey found the newest CD from Emerson Drive, a Canadian country band that had recently started to make it big in Nashville and handed it to Behrooz. "Here."

As they went back downstairs toward the door and he said goodbye to Danielle, Casey reminded him that he better send her those songs she requested online.  
"You gonna be online tonight?" he asked. "I can send them then."  
"Sounds great!" she replied, the old Casey started to reappear, then she became more subdued again. "Hey, thanks for all that. It was…you were really easy to talk to. Thanks for being that way."  
"So you're going to be ok?" Behrooz asked. He was still concerned about her, but part of him knew that his new friend would find a way to rebound.  
"Its gonna take some time, but I'll be fine. Wait, by the way, you guys up to anything tomorrow? Cause I'm actually thinking we could go ride some go-carts, there's a new place in town we haven't checked out yet. I just need to do something to get all this off my mind for now."

"Yo, that would be great."  
"Cool, just let me know what time's good for ya'll. We're pretty flexible tomorrow. Take care."  
Behrooz waved back to her as he began jogging back toward his condo. He didn't know where his life was going from here, but as he looked out toward the peaceful waves of the Atlantic splashing onto sand, he wanted so hard to believe that his life was turning around, for good.


	8. Terrapins Yacht Club

Note: I took a little liberty here with naming chapters after songs

_Note: I took a little liberty here with naming chapters after songs. "Terrapins" refers to the Maryland Terrapins from the University of Maryland. The title was changed from "Redneck Yacht Club" by Craig Morgan.) _

CHAPTER 8: Terrapins Yacht Club

"Wait, you were in their house??" Marc asked incredulously, already thinking about Becca.  
"Yeah, it just kinda happened."  
"Dude, so she breaks up with her boyfriend AND she invites you to her room?"  
Behrooz shrugged. "Nothing much. She just lent me one of her CDs. But she did want us to go go-kart riding with them tomorrow, I mean, if you're not doing anything."  
"Hell, yeah. You're really beating us this summer."

Behrooz nodded as he poured himself some orange juice from the fridge. "Remember how you used to tell me about not screwing around anymore when you have the right girl. I think this is it, dude."  
Marc thought for a while and finally nodded. "I kinda agree. I think we should both go for it."  
"We? Oh, you and Becca."  
"Sheesh, man, you haven't noticed that yet, or you're just too busy staring at cute blonde Casey?"  
They both shared a hearty laugh.

The next week and a half passed by rather quickly, and the bond that had formed between Behrooz and Casey only deepened. Neither of them could describe it, but they were drawn to one another. They had a huge thrill racing go-karts on the beach, going to another happy hour, and hitting up a club in Kitty Hawk where both of them danced awkwardly after drinking a bit too much, but all of their friends knew the two shared a certain chemistry with one another. Behrooz remembered asking Michelle, the girl from Wisconsin, for advice as they got paired together in a canoe going into Albemarle Sound to capture sea turtles and place trackers on them.

Michelle told him that when she and Lucas got together, it all just happened naturally. "You know, Robbie, regardless of what guys seem to think, a lot of girls don't really care about guys trying to act all special, trying to impress us. Lucas certainly didn't do that," she said as she rubbed a turtle's nose while Behrooz placed the tracker on it. Behrooz had to rub the nose as well, since at the University of Maryland it was one of those campus traditions that brought you good luck on exams. On campus, it was actually a turtle statue in front of the main library, but this was the real thing. After all, Maryland's mascot was the Terrapins (Terps for short), an endangered species native to the state's coastal regions.

She continued, "You just have to be yourself, act natural. To be honest, Lucas was kinda awkward on our first date, and the first time I met him, but I didn't mind. Its not so much the image you try to create for yourself as what's really in your heart. That's the part that shows through from the very beginning. I can tell Casey's a really smart girl, and she should know that."

Behrooz finally found the courage to ask Casey after that week had passed. It took place on the wildlife refuge, where Behrooz and Marc had invited her, Allison, Elyse, and Danielle to visit for one day. After the research was done, they took a powerboat out into the sound and went water skiing and tubing. Michelle, who drove the boat, purposely had Behrooz and Casey pair up on the tubing run, where the two hung on to a large mass of rubber dragged behind the boat. While Casey had always been a beach person, she was actually not so accustomed to water sports, and this time Behrooz was the one trying to assuage her nervousness about the safety. Mr. and Mrs. Shiraz actually had several friends who went with them yearly to a place called Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland where they rented a lakeside house with a private dock for a couple days and spent all day on a wide assortment of recreational watercraft.

Michelle started them off slow but then at Marc's urging sped up quickly and made wide turns, purposely thrown Casey and Behrooz off balance so hey skimmed over the water tumbling and splashing, though it was all safe due to their life vests and to Michelle's careful judgment of the distance between their boat and other vessels in the area. Michelle and Marc shared a playful look as they saw Behrooz take Casey's hand and help her back up the tube.

The only person whose smiles weren't completely genuine was Danielle. Now her anger at Behrooz was starting to surface, and it was not so much rage at the past as jealousy at seeing how he was dealing with the weight of what happened in California. He couldn't imagine Behrooz could be here having the time of his life as if nothing had ever happened. But wasn't that what she was supposed to be doing too? Wasn't that what agents like Curtis and Ellie had told her? The part that bothered her most was his obvious interest in Casey. She knew Casey wasn't in any danger by associating with Behrooz, but for some reason she still felt uneasy. She was glad Behrooz was helping Casey get over her heartbreak so quickly, but also felt he was taking advantage of Casey's situation to get with her. Well, I'm going to talk to Case soon enough, Danielle told herself.

Yet she felt better as it was her turn on the tube, which she shared with Michelle while Behrooz operated the controls of the boat. This summer had just been such a roller coaster ride of emotions, especially after running into Behrooz again. Her only comfort was that she had become an expert in keeping secrets, and knew how to keep it all inside, though she wasn't sure how long this all could last.

Behrooz finally asked Casey on their first date after he cut the motor to the boat and just let it float in the middle of the waterway. In a way, he picked this moment could he knew it would be hard for Casey to say no, since she was in such a great mood and they had just had so much fun together. He had begun by saying how the Sea Ranch gave him some coupons for a seafood restaurant on the Nags Head fishing pier, not wanting to call this an official date yet and trying to be more chill.

"So is it a date?" she asked directly.  
"No, like I said it's just a chill thing, you know, before we both gotta get busy tomorrow with research and work."  
"You can be honest," Casey said. "What time?"

They agreed on 7:30, where Behrooz had already reserved a table for two. While the busboys were cleaning it up, they browsed the bait shop next to the restaurant and Behrooz examined some of the fishing rods, though he had brought their own. They got a table outdoors overlooking the pier and got a perfect view of the purplish-orange evening sky as the lights began to come on the lengthy coast of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. It was a very comfortable evening, with the temperature at just 72 degrees.

"You know, I haven't done this is a long time, so…"  
"Nah, don't worry about it," replied Casey, "You're doing just fine."  
The waiter came over and lit the candles set in the middle of the table and they ordered some breadsticks and shrimp poppers as appetizers.  
"You've got good taste, Robbie," she said. "This is actually one of my favorite places in town."  
Behrooz's spirits lifted further. In the back of his mind, he thought about Danielle and how she would be dealing with all this, but pushed those thoughts out of his mind. "So you said you're here every summer? Wow?"

"Well, this is my second summer working here, but our family had the cottage since I was eight and we spent at least a week here every summer plus the weekends sometimes, so yeah I guess it's really a part of me. This time my mom was glad she got to rent this place to my friends instead of random people. They got a pretty good deal too."

Behrooz nodded. "I wish I was that lucky, but I'd say the research program's a pretty good deal, with the school paying for us."  
She asked him about what the work entailed in the wildlife refuge and he described the exciting boat excursions to isolated islands in the sound, tracking dolphins in the open ocean, running exhibits at the North Carolina Aquarium's Roanoke Island location in Manteo, and also the less exiting lectures and seminars held in the aquarium and the lab reports he had to write. Besides Maryland, there were students from Wisconsin, Texas, Utah, Nebraska, and Connecticut so Behrooz's group was the one who already knew the most about being on the water.

He listened intently as she told him about her growing up, including some funny and embarrassing tales she remember from back in the day, while he looked at the sea breeze flicker through her blonde hair illuminated by the beautiful sunset. After all that Behrooz had gone through, every moment like this was a gift. They began eating their delicious Caesar salads as the pina colladas they ordered came too. She smiled at him again as she took a sip, enjoying the sweet taste. Behrooz loved to see her so happy again, the way he had first met her as she sat on that lifeguard stand soaking up the sun.

Casey was a product of ultimate suburbia. She grew up in a four bedroom house with a two car garage set in a self-contained neighborhood, had an older brother who was now attending grad school in New England, a cat named Jake back home, and had spent a lot of time hanging out at the mall with her "bestest friends" throughout high school. Her dad worked as a software developer for a major IT company while her mom was a middle school history teacher. She admitted her life was not the most exciting one but she had no complaints.

Behrooz gave her the version of Robbie Shiraz's childhood the FBI and CTU had made him memorize, which actually incorporated part of his real self. He told her he was born in Turkey to Iranian parents who had fled their country after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, during which extremists toppled the Iranian monarchy, took hostages at the U.S. Embassy, and instilled oppressive Islamic law on the nation. She was curious about life in Istanbul and felt it was exotic since her only trips outside the U.S. had been to Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe. He told her what he really remembered from Turkey, shopping in the open air markets, buying shish kebabs from roadside vendors, the chaotic traffic of Istanbul, seeing men in turbans and women in veils everywhere, and hearing the call to prayer from the city's countless mosques, since he lived in a traditional area rather than the version of Turkey seen by foreign visitors. He told her that his parents decided to come to the U.S. because Turkey offered limited opportunities and his father jumped at a job offer from a major hotel corporation headquarter in Maryland.

He told her adjusting to life in the U.S. during his high school years was not easy, but he had since learned to speak English with an American accent and enjoyed the hobbies that other American youths did. Before they knew it, the waiter came back with their entrees, a sautéed swordfish platter with corn and baked potato for Casey and a much greasier platter with fried shrimp, flounder, and scallops for Behrooz. He saw her staring at his obviously less healthy food and said, "I've been eating healthy all week, I think I deserve a feast."

She nodded and smiled. "At least you're better than Kyle."  
"Don't worry. One of my friends is a dietetics major and he's always lecturing me about food. But I do watch it most of the time, plus I work out at the gym every day at school, and hear our days have a lot of physical stuff." She seemed satisfied with that answer. "Just looking out for you, you know."

After they finished the entrees, they ate their desserts at the far end of the pier, which they shared with a handful of fishermen. He looked to the north and saw the neon lights of the Sea Ranch Condominium lit up next to the signature sunshine logo of the Days Inn though he couldn't quite see that stand where all this had started. He really had to do some reflection as he and Casey fixed some bait to their fishing lines and let them drop with small splashes in the water dozens of feet below them on the gently swaying pier. All this had started with a single hello to a complete stranger, and here they were together.

There was some tugging on the line and Behrooz quickly brought it back, and there was a small shark bobbling around on the wooden pier, several other fisherman looking at them. This catch was a bit too small and he told her so, though they were going to release the fish anyway since unlike some of the other anglers here, they were just doing this for fun.

"So much for a shark-free beach, eh?" Behrooz said in a mock accusing tone.  
"Yeah, we're like 300 feet out vs. 20?" she shot back playfully.

He handed her the shark and she grabbed it, careful not to get her hand anywhere near its mouth, and she tossed it over the railing of the pier watching it splash into the water and swim away. Several minutes later, in near silence with the sun only slightly above the western horizon past the hotels and cottages on the shore, Behrooz and Casey's hands gently met, then their eyes for a brief couple seconds, before he kissed her gently on the cheek and he did the same. Then with her typically sweetness, she helped Behrooz roll his line back in and they went back toward their car hand-in-hand.


	9. Part of Your World

Here's chapter 9

_Here's chapter 9. This story takes place in the same summer as "Season 6 Europe" which means its the year 2012, but popular culture references are all from the present day. Also, look for a semi-Chloe apperance and find out more about Curtis. This chapter and the next one will be set on the road for the main characters...I know the setting is not as great as the Outer Banks but this is a necessary arc of the story. I will take Behrooz and everyone back to the beach for the last segment. There will be a lot more suspense coming up. _

_No, I don't like the movie in which the song I named this chapter after is from, but its a fitting title ;) _

CHAPTER 9: Part of Your World

TWO WEEKS LATER

The traffic on the opposite median of the highway was a jumble of vacationers in SUVs, RV's, and minivans, many with fishing poles and speedboats in tow, but it was a near empty stretch heading east toward the rising sun. There was a 4-day weekend for Independence Day this year and Behrooz, Casey, Marc, Allison, and Danielle, the ones lucky enough to either get a break from research or days off their jobs, were accompanying Casey on an excursion home.

In contrast to the roads leading to the Outer Banks from Tidewater Virginia which Behrooz had arrived on, it was smooth freeway driving the moment they passed Roanoke Island and the various bridges linking the island chain to the North Carolina mainland. They passed through another wetlands refuge, some quiet farming towns, and then US Highway 64 became a wide freeway with a 70 mph speed limit. They took turns driving, and Behrooz put Marc's Jeep Grand Cherokee on cruise control as he gently navigated the small turns the road made. Going back into the real world after a month at the beach was a bit disorienting, and the temperature quickly picked up as they made their way west. It was only 9 in the morning, yet the display on the dashboard already indicated it was 88 degrees outside. Allison explained how the ocean currents modified the local Outer Banks weather so the beaches were always a good 10 to 15 degrees cooler than inland.

They took turns listening to a variety of CDs ranging from Behrooz and Casey's favorite country superstars to Marc's collection of rock and classic rock, while Allison simply sticked with the mix station on the local radio, since her tastes were rather eclectic, including everything except for emo and heavy metal. They also talked about everything from sports to life back at home as Behrooz saw the North Carolina landscape whiz by. The highway quickly widened and traffic increased considerably as they reached the state capital of Raleigh and Casey and Allison insisted on a quick detour to nearby Chapel Hill to visit some friends who were spending the summer on campus. From what Behrooz saw of it, it was just a smaller version of Maryland, though the town was much nicer with its tree-lined streets, cute little boutiques and shady outdoor cafes compared to College Park, a town where the main student hangout was Chipotle's and the surrounding area a tangle of run-down, crime-ridden ghettos that stretched into Washington, D.C.

It was sunset by the time they reached the sprawling Charlotte area, and Behrooz took comfort at the familiarity of the massive billboards, ubiquitous big box stores and office parks that lined the interstate into the city. If there was anything special about the South, he didn't really see it in the towering glass and steel skyscrapers of the central business district, drivers cutting him off without even caring to signal or the jumble of stack interchanges where other interstates separated from the one they were on to faraway destinations like Atlanta, Nashville, and Charleston. This place actually resembled Maryland, Behrooz thought to himself.

For Danielle, the familiarity hurt. She had so wanted to just stay at the beach all summer without having to face the real world, but passing through this city only reminded her of all those times she, Debbie, and Behrooz had spent together in L.A. Yet she couldn't say no to her friends' offer to tag along, so here she was, going home in a sense, and it was a place she didn't want to be. Casey had taken over the wheel by now and Behrooz commented on how nice her hometown was as they took an off-ramp into a suburban strip with tastefully designed shopping centers lined with blossoming flowers and shady trees. The next turn took them to a smaller road with less traffic that led through clumps of woodland and parks before they reached the sign for her neighborhood, named Orange Grove.

It was especially hard to put up the façade of happiness as they finally arrived at Casey's house and saw her friend embrace both her parents warmly as her Golden Retriever rushed up and began licking. As they all set up their sleeping bags in the basement or crashed on the living room couches, Danielle excused herself and went to a bathroom, sobbing quietly. If that day had not happened, this could very well have been her family, getting together for the holiday, laughing, and trading fun stories.  
"Debbie, I so wish you were here with me right now," Danielle whispered to her reflection in the mirror as she took out her contacts and wiped the tears from her brown eyes. The worst thing was that every time she looked at herself in the mirror, she was literally seeing her dead sister, and having Behrooz around has only made it more and more unbearable, especially after Casey had told her about that date on the pier and how she was beginning to fall for him.

That night, the dreams came back with a vengeance. She was in a dark, obscure room, then the horrifying images of Mrs. Araz flashed by, then there was Debbie talking to her from the morgue, sticking her head above the white sheets in the smelly linoleum room at Tyler Memorial Hospital in L.A. "How can you let this happen, Dani?" her sister said in an angry, accusing tone. "You're going to let that terrorist do the same thing to your friend that he did to me?" She drifted in and out of sleep, then finally she saw Casey collapsing on the floor with white foam coming out of her mouth. She almost screamed as she woke up with a jolt, her body soaked with sweat as if she had just had an intense workout at the gym, but her mouth was too dry. She quickly twisted open a bottle of Aquafina water from the downstairs mini-fridge and silently went upstairs, careful not to wake Allison up. Behrooz is dangerous, she thought. He never changed. A leopard can't change his spots, no matter what illusions he might give.

Images of her nightmare haunted her as she finally made it to the first floor of the house and saw Behrooz and Marc sleeping on living room couches.

"Hey there, Dani," a kind, middle-aged voice called. She turned around and saw Casey's mom calling her. Her, Casey, and her dad were eating some pineapples and watermelon in the family room while a movie was playing. She slowly breathed out, not letting on it was a sigh of relief that her friend was perfectly fine.  
"Oh, hey. Yeah, I'm sorry, I just felt hungry all of a sudden and I was going to…"  
"We've got plenty over here, and these melons are seedless too," her friend said, motioning for her to come over.

Dani said to Casey's parents. "You know, thanks so much for letting us stay at the cottage for so cheap. I'm really having the best time of my life."  
"You've been taking care of your gals, right, Case?" the father said, rubbing his daughter on the shoulder.  
"Oh definitely."  
"Casey here's having quite a summer too so I hear." Of course he wasn't told about those parties at the Sea Ranch or the bar hopping in Kitty Hawk, but as long as Casey was discrete about it, he was willing to let it slide. Besides, her 21st birthday is only a month away and she would be legal age anyway. "It's a shame what happened with Matt, but I hear your friend Robbie's a real nice guy and helped her deal with things a lot."

"Yeah, Robbie's great," Danielle replied, with no other possible answer, as she picked up a slide of locally grown watermelon and bit into it, feeling its fresh sweetness in her mouth.  
"So do you think there's something serious between you and him?" Casey's dad asked.  
Casey finished chewing and replied, "I'm not sure. We'll just have to see how things turn out."  
"Well I do look forward to seeing that gentleman more," he concluded.

"You know, it's like forever since I've been here," Casey told Behrooz as they breathed the refreshing cool air after stepping through the automatic sliding doors of her local mall and favorite high school hangout. "I just hope I don't spend TOO much of my paychecks. Two summers ago I was an Abercrombie floor rep and got all these employee discounts. Almost made me forget how expensive it really is."

"See," Behrooz said as he tossed a penny into the huge fountain in the center of the mall, "My parents never saw the hype about these bands and were so obsessed about being frugal, so I never really got past Old Navy." Of course that had been Navi and Dina. The Shirazes obviously had much more disposable income since none of it was spent buying materials for explosives and having automatic weapons smuggled through the California coast.

"People thought I was super rich or something," Casey told him, "Then I tell them I work for Abercrombie and they're like, oh yeah." In fact, her family was not that much richer than the comfortably middle-class Shirazes, but money went much further here compared to Maryland. She was exactly the kind of girl Marc had said was perfect. She was down to Earth, attractive, fun-loving, had a nice subdued sense of humor, and was stylish but not overly extravagant.

"Been ages since I took a girl shopping," Behrooz commented, then quickly added, "But I'll get used to it fast enough."  
"Haha, you better!" she said as she looked as a display case filled with topaz-colored ear rings and tried some on, deciding they weren't worth the price.

They passed an outdoors-themed specialty shop and went in to look at the cowboy/cowgirl outfits that were part of the store's "All-American Fourth of July Sale". Casey took a nice ten-gallon hat and placed it on Behrooz's head, then made him look at the mirror, both of them erupting in laughter. Behrooz picked out a red, white and blue baseball cap, and also a pair of tiny flags to wave since they were all going to the celebration in downtown Charlotte highlighted this year by Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans, and Keith Urban. Then, it was time for Casey to get a nice new dose of new clothes, like just any girl.

Behrooz had to wait several times for Casey to go in and out of the fitting room at the Abercrombie store and judge between several outfits.  
"C'mon, you're beautiful no matter what you're wearing."  
She blushed. "Thanks, but I do need to know which one's better! It's pretty simple, this one, left, or that one, right."  
"Why don't you make up your own mind? Its your clothes after all."  
"Cause I asked you, LOL. You pick something out for me, and I'll pick an outfit for you, fair enough? I want to look good for you, just you'd better help me out here!"  
"Great," Behrooz said, his eyes wandering back and forth between the two sets of clothes she was holding. "Except I've always like Banana Republic better."

The last time he had done this was with Danielle, and it was at an Aeropostole and Forever 21, but not Abercrombie & Fitch. Behrooz was glad that Casey was a somewhat different person. After what he had gone through, every day was a gift, and he would give anything if the rest of his life could be like this. He still hadn't told Mr. or Mrs. Shiraz about Casey and they had never had any discussions about women since he had always been shy and haunted by his past since the day he moved in with them, but he assumed that like Dina and Navi, they would have wanted Behrooz to marry a Middle Eastern woman, perhaps even one fresh from her home country. He made a mental note to himself to bring Casey up in an e-mail and attach some pictures with it, which would probably have to wait until after their return to the Outer Banks. He had been comtemplating about Danielle for a moment when he forced a smile back on his face as Casey came over.

For the evening, they all went out to dinner with Casey's parents at a fancy Italian restaurant across from the mall then decided to head to Regal Cinemas 12 for the holiday weekend's new openers. Behrooz, Marc, and Casey's dad chose to see the new futuristic thriller with Keanu Reeves while the females chose the Adam Sandler comedy instead.

Behrooz had seriously considered going to the comedy with Casey, but she insisted it was a great time for him and her father to spend some time together. They had an hour before the movie started, so Behrooz and Marc decided to sip a nice cold fruit smoothie by the palm-ringed fountain area in the middle of the mall. Suddenly, Behrooz's cell phone beeped, and the caller ID read none other than "COB". Chloe O'Brien. Behrooz suddenly lost his grip and Marc had to catch the Smoothie for him.

"Hey, chill out, dude, its just a movie, not even a you and your girl thing, and she's okay with you not seeing Adam Sandler with her. She's like the most chill girl ever."  
"I know. I'm just…well I'm still nervous. I can't help that." Behrooz changed the subject as he thought about how he would complete the instructions Chloe had text messaged him. As if on cue, Casey and her mom decided to go check out the 4th of July sale at JC Penney.

"Hey, I just saw the ads for the shoe sale at Hecht's," Danielle said to the two boys, "I think I'm gonna go check it out."  
"Oh really? Mind if I join you? I was kinda looking for some new sneakers myself."  
"Yeah sure, c'mon," she said, knowing Marc would not be interested in the long walk.

Danielle was cold and distant as they took the escalator up to the second floor and walked along the bright marble walkways lined with commercial logos which stood in stark contrast to the pitch black sky seen through the skylights above. It was a busy holiday weekend with stores having extended hours and shoppers rushing back and forth, but both of them felt utterly alone as they went into the Hecht's department store, where Chloe had instructed them to meet with her "people". Whoever her people were. Charlotte didn't have a CTU branch last time he checked.

"Dani…" Behrooz began.  
"Look, I really don't want to talk to you right now," she said in a distant voice. He had no idea she had that terrible dream the night before.  
"I know that my relationship with Casey bothers you, but…"  
"I don't believe I'm hearing this," Dani said angrily. "Maybe its easy for you to forget everything that's happened in L.A., but I still think about it every day. I still think about my sister, about going home, about…"

Her anger was replaced by despair and sadness as tears welled up in her eyes. Behrooz felt terrible pangs of guilt as he saw her eyes grow red, the same hazel eyes he had fallen in love with when he first met Debbie.

"Looking at you every day here is killing me, in case you don't know that," Behrooz said, immediately regretting his words. Danielle's sister was an innocent teenage girl murdered in the most horrifying of ways, and he himself was a former terrorist who participated in unspeakable acts against everything that was decent and civilized. "I'll be lying to you if I told you I didn't have feelings for your friend, and I wish you weren't here, but there's nothing we can do now. If Chloe wants to…"

"Hey kids, that's what I was afraid of," they heard a stranger say.  
They looked to their left and saw a man in a flannel shirt and jeans come over through the cosmetics department. Behrooz knew from his instincts that this was one of the FBI agents. "Men's department's over that way," the guy continued, pointing.

The two college students walked on in silence and sure enough, Behrooz glanced at the mirror on the Estee Lauder display counter and saw the man's reflection taking out a beeper and talking into it. Some stakeout, these Feds, he thought. No wonger he and Danielle had spent more than a month together in Kill Devil Hills before they found out.

They met their contact, a man in a t-shirt, khaki shorts, and thinning hair, at the far corner of the men's department near the Hecht's administrative offices, which were closed, so the area was quiet.

"Robbie, Danielle, I'm Fred Conway, CTU-Atlanta. I'm here on instructions from Chloe O'Brien in Los Angeles. The man you saw earlier is with the Charlotte FBI field office. We have other agents in the area. One of the agents told me they heard you talking about your past. He could have been a spy working for Tomas Sherek's father, Soheil. Chloe asked me to meet with you since she's currently assigned to CTU-Europe in London on a temporary basis for the Olympic Games, and as you know Curtis Manning has recently left CTU and rejoined the Marines after his brother was killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan. He's currently assigned to the security detail at our Baghdad embassy."

"I didn't know that. I'm sorry," Behrooz said quietly. Curtis, Tony, and Chloe were his "closest" friends at CTU, and now Tony was dead, the man who signed his pardon, President Keeler, was also dead, and Curtis was in the middle of a war zone.  
"Like you really mean that," Danielle said with a glare, "I bet deep down you support the animals who murdered Curtis's brother. You probably cheered for Vladimir Bierko too."  
Agent Conway had to hold her to keep her crying from attracting attention from the smattering of shopper's in the men's department, and got another clear update from the FBI personnel stationed in Hecht's and elsewhere in this mall.

"Sir…I… this is just so hard for me, I apologize, I know…" Dani said between sobs.  
"I know, Dani, both of you, it's all right."  
"I'm not making excuses for what I've done," Behrooz said to both of them, "I'm trying to make up for them. Like showing a girl I can love her, and protect her, and care for her." He then turned to the agent. "I'm trying to make up my debt. I was baptized last year, and I go to church all the time with Mrs. Shiraz and pray to God for forgiveness. I donated most of the money I made at my job on campus to victims of Sherek's bombing, San Gabriel Island, Ontario Airport, and to Bierko's victims in Russia. I'm…I would like to contact President Heller and Audrey Raines to apologize to them, but….I can't do it. Not yet."

"You'll find the courage for that soon, son. I know you've turned around. I've worked with delinquents for years and you're different. I know you want to change, I know you HAVE changed."

He paused, looking around the room and asking the two to walk slightly away from the fitting rooms since two shoppers were approaching their general area, one of them calling out loudly for the sales clerk to go over from the other register.  
"Anyway," Conway said, "Chloe was flabbergasted when she heard you and Danielle were together on the Outer Banks, and that not only that, you both traveled here to Charlotte in the same car. We got security footage from the UNC campus police when you visited the campus, from the Denney's in Rocky Mount, and the Welcome Center on I-85."

"You just found out now??" Danielle asked.  
He nodded. "We've got such a backlog of cases. Besides, your case and Robbie's were handled by different people, Robbie by Curtis and Chloe and you by Agents Almeida and Dessler and their replacements. We wanted the intel split up because there's been too many breaches of security."  
What kind of government agency is this where you can't even trust your closest colleagues? Behrooz wanted to ask, but CTU was CTU. Or at least CTU Los Angeles was that way. He hoped that Conway's office in Atlanta was the antithesis of what went on in L.A.

"There's no indication that Sherek's people are any closer to finding you than the day you both left Los Angeles, and while our sources in Istanbul say he's scoped the entire country, he hasn't given any special consideration to North Carolina, Maryland, or Missouri. If anything, his resources are focused on areas of high Turkish and Iranian populations in New York, California, and the Upper Midwest. Even Canada. If I split you up now, its going to attract unwanted attention."

The two were silent.  
"So, no more slipups like you did out by the Lancome counter ten minutes ago."  
"I'm sorry, sir, we usually don't…"  
"Usually don't cut it," Conway said in a serious tone. "It's always a matter of life and death. The Turkish police are trying to build a case against Soheil Sherek and hopefully they will be successful and you may both have the possibility of having your old lives back."

For Danielle, that meant going back to California with her friends and extended family again. For Behrooz, he really didn't know. He grew paranoid, thinking about the possibility of the government deporting him back to Turkey, or even worse, Iran, but Chloe would never allow that, and she had promised he would get his U.S. citizenship. He wanted to ask Conway if there was any option, if Soheil was prosecuted in Turkey, to keep his new identity. If was the only real, normal life he had ever known, and he immediately regretted sqandering so much of the last three years in Maryland stuck in the past instead of moving forward. His mouth opened, but no sounds came out. He can't ask just now. Especially not in front of Dani.

Conway shook hands with both of them. "That's all for tonight, kids. And, um, enjoy the movie."


	10. Independence Day

Ok, here's chapter 10

_Ok, here's chapter 10. _

_Note: I dont' know about Keith Urban's real life world views so he's used as a ficticious character here and his speech may not reflect what he really believes.  
Also, look for a reference to Season 2 ;) _

_SPECIAL GUEST STARRING_

_Keith Urban - Himself_

_Sara Evans - Herself_

_Jack Ingrams - Himself_

_Rascal Flatts- Themselves_

CHAPTER 10: Independence Day

The heat wave striking the eastern half of the nation thankfully abated slightly for the 4th of July, and there were comfortable breezes making their way through the air as Behrooz helped Casey's dad put burgers and hot dogs on the grill for the annual backyard barbecue. Casey's other relatives living in the Charlotte area, her Uncle Dale, Aunt Marcie, and cousins Sean, Bridget, and Chuck came in their Dodge Voyager minivan.

"So you and Casey are getting along quite well, I hear," Casey's dad Justin said.  
"Yes, w're really good friends. I'm glad we all got to know one another. You know, my friends and her friends were all gonna share the same stretch of beach all summer, so its kinda natural we thought we'd introduce ourselves."  
"Actually, we were all kinda surprised you and Marc took that initiative. When school's in session she works at the campus pool, and practically none of the regulars who go there to swim ever pay attention to her. Of course they're mainly nice people once she introduced herself first, but…I'm glad there's still people like you out there."

Casey had warned Behrooz about how both her dad and uncle were often nostalgic about the past. Justin was saddened by the fact that he had completely lost his Southern accent since moving to the big city as a teenager, and his childhood evoked every image one would have of the Old South, except for the Confederate flag, which made Behrooz relieved. Many Southerners claim the rebel flag was really about their heritage, not about trying to bring back slavery or the Jim Crow days. Perhaps it was true, but Behrooz didn't want to go there, which was ironic given that his parents home in Turkey contained a much obviously distasteful flag, that of Hezbollah, which featured a mounted machine gun and Arabic lettering promoting the struggle of militant Islam.

"I mean it's just common sense to get acquainted in that situation," Behrooz said, not revealing the real story of their first meeting and Marc's challenging him to talk to a random cute girl, though in reality he would have eventually gotten to know her anyway. "Its kinda sad how this world has come to, and I guess I was just brought up a bit differently. Well, all those swimmers at her school sure are missing out on a lot."

Justin laughed and struck him jokingly with his baseball cap. "You be careful with my baby girl, you hear?"  
Behrooz nodded and Justin continued, "But in all seriousness, I'm glad she met you. I just want to go find Matt Mastranstuoni and beat the living daylights out of him for what he's done. Anyway, I don't know how Casey would have gone through a time like this without you there. She told me how you helped her deal with so much, and I owe you a big thanks for that."  
Behrooz was taken aback. Casey really said all that about him? "I was just trying to be a good friend, that's all. It just kinda went on from there, I guess."

Justin checked the burgers and threw a frisbee, the Golden Retriever immediately barking and chasing it toward the chain-link fence separating the Winemillers' yard from their neighbors, who were also coming to enjoy the picnic, bringing buns, ice cold beers, and sodas.  
"Well, you and her have my blessing, though I doubt you really give a damn about that." He changed the subject. "So, you're half Turkish and half Iranian?"  
"No. My parents are Iranian, but I was born in Turkey."

"Great place, always wanted to visit it sometimes, now that we've probably seen most of what there's to see in Europe. Hey, I forgot about Turkey, uh, are Sunni or a Shiite?"  
"Actually I'm Catholic. My parents converted after moving to Istanbul."  
"Is that so?" Justin reached into the cooler and opened a can of Miller Lite. "I was afraid of appearing insensible earlier, but now that I know you don't have any religious qualms and such, I don't care if you're 21 or not. You're having a beer."  
Behrooz took a big gulp, enjoying the refreshing feel as the beer went down his throat. "Wouldn't be Independence Day without it."  
"Sure wouldn't. So do you consider yourself Turkish or Iranian, or what?"

"Yeah, I know it's confusing," Behrooz said. His real truth was that Navi was from Turkey and Dina was from Iran, but his FBI story was that he was completely Iranian but only spoke Turkish. "It's complicated, but I'm just American now."

"That's the right answer, son," Dale chipped in. He had been setting up the plates, plastic utensils, and napkins on the table outside and had heard much of their conversation. "I'm glad you feel that way."  
"It's just natural, you know," Behrooz said, ignoring the side glances Danielle was casting at him as she played with the dog. "Yeah, I was born in Istanbul, but it's not like I'm ever going back again, I mean I'll have some kind of passing interest in the place, but I'm not caught up in it." Truthfully, Behrooz wanted to be as far away from Istanbul, Tehran, or Los Angeles as possible.

"That's good," Dale replied, "You're the kind of immigrant I love to welcome into my country. It's refreshing to know there are still people like you around."  
"Hey Uncle Dale, can you please just cut it, just for once?" Casey said with an embarrassed expression on her face, "You make it seem like everyone who isn't a fifth generation local like yourself is somehow dangerous."  
She nudged Behrooz as if to say "I hope you'll excuse him".  
"It's really okay, Case," he said, patting her on the back and running his hand through her blonde hair, the soft texture tickling his hand as every single blonde strand seemed to glitter in the late morning sunlight. He could never get enough of her. What Dale had said ashamed Behrooz, since he had been anything but the good, loyal, patriotic new American people thought he was.

The dog came back barking and Dale took the Frisbee out of his mouth, tossing it far away again, the once more the dog rushed for it.  
"So I hear that you've taken my niece water skiing AND fishing?"  
"A few times, yeah."  
"I love you already, kid," Dale said loudly, giving Behrooz a hearty whack on the back. "I've been trying for years to get her to appreciate the fun of going behind a boat or casting a line and she never caught on, so much for how much she professes to love the water. But it took you a couple weeks alone?"

"Well, I think enough peer pressure does it." He told him about the outing with the research teams on the sound and how once Casey had tried tubing for the first time, she found it really wasn't anywhere as scary, that it was just really fun. Dale continued to comment on how Behrooz was so apt at using the grill. If someone like Dale O'Malley could have a liking for me, Behrooz thought to himself, maybe I've really changed.

The 4th of July was always difficult for him since the day Debbie died, but this year was especially rough since he was spending it the all-American way with his new American girlfriend, with Danielle also in the same house and yard. He finished his hot dog and saw Casey, now wearing a tie dyed shirt, chatting with her mom and rubbing her dog's back, with that typical cheerful demeanor. She was the kind of person Behrooz used to hate, the kind of person his parents had taught him to hate. Dina Araz especially had wanted to distance herself from her victims. Behrooz remembered vividly going to the neighborhood pool in L.A. with Dina and some of their Muslim friends, which was part of keeping the cover of the assimilating immigrant family next door.

One of Dina's friends had walked onto the pool deck in an Afghan burka and a female lifeguard had asked the woman to either change into a bathing suit or watch her kids from outside the pool fence since county rules prohibited "street clothes" on the deck. Navi had commented in Turkish about how the girl was a slut, how she was dressed like a whore and how all American girls were decadent. They had all commented that snow would fall in Mecca before any Turkish or Persian girl would be working a job like that.

In a way, Behrooz wished his mother could be here with him. Casey could very well have been that lifeguard whom they had called a slut. She was not just some American girl, or a beach lifeguard like when he first met her, or a high school Miss Popularity. He never loved her as much as he did now, seeing her out of any kind of uniform (Abercrombie counted too), just relaxing with her mom and her dog, enjoying a summertime barbecue in her own back yard. She was so human right now, someone with her own unique story, her own dreams, and her own loves, which now included him. Behrooz wondered what Dina would think if she was here with him. If she had been able to meet his new girlfriend, to spend time with her and her family, and have those deep conversations while licking ice cream cones, would she still be able to hate her?

It hurt him that she had died without ever having been given a chance to change. She had closed her own mind and refused to accept any alternative to what Navi and the imams back in the Middle East had said not just about politics but about life in general. Dina had been brainwashed into what she was since the day she met Navi and stepped into his mosque, she really be blamed for everything? After that, he had owned her completely, the way a traditional Islamic family operated, so did she ever have another chance?

He would never forget that night at the 4th of July concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Charlotte. There was sellout crowd under a late afternoon sky filled with puffy white clouds that looked like giant cotton balls. All of the college kids were here though Casey's parents had opted out of this one since they were not hardcore fans like their daughter was. Uncle Dale wanted to attend badly, but he and his wife and kids had gone with some friends to the Smoky Mountains National Park for several days.

It was tremendously hard for Danielle to fake excitement at the prospect of attending. Her FBI minder had dragged her to several country concerts in Kansas City so she could convincingly act the part precisely for scenarios such as this one. She had grown up in L.A. dancing to hip hop, Latin pop, and Indian music, and it took nice to get used to the twang, much less dance to it. This concert was the real first test for her, but in many ways it wasn't too bad since the FBI had started her off with Lonestar and Shania Twain, both very pop-influenced, then eventually got her to Toby Keith and Gretchen Wilson, who more of the redneck image. She hoped her training had prepared her for this.

Inside, she thanked God that her first real test of pretending to be from the heartland, the so-called Real America, was a country concert and not a NASCAR race. Like anyone from L.A., she was sick of cars, and found nothing more boring than seeing dozens of them circle a speedway, and she fell asleep when the FBI made her watch the Daytona 500 on TV. She has since had to discuss both Toby Keith and Danica Patric with her Missouri friends, all of whom were hardcore fans, and was convincing enough. Even now she didn't know how she managed it! Marc and Alison weren't crazy about country, but thought it would be an interesting experience, and Marc had promised Becca he would take a lot of pictures and show them to her next time he hung out with her at the Travelodge front desk during her evening shifts.

Jack Ingram opened for Rascal Flatts with his hit single "Wherever You Are", and Danielle and Casey began moving along to the fast-paced music. Behrooz playfully flipped Casey's cowgirl hat several times. She looked so lovely in that hat and her cutoff jeans, trying to get him to feel the rhythm and dance more. As the sky darkened, Sara Evans took over, strumming along to a red, white and blue electric guitar and performing several of her most popular songs, including "Suds in the Bucket" and "A Real Fine Place to Start". Danielle had to take turns dancing with Behrooz until a young man broke away from his friends near her group and asked her to join him. Danielle was actually thankful for this slightly sketchy looking individual, who introduced himself as a high school student named Carson and hung out with him and his friends. Away from Behrooz, even with this stranger, she suddenly found herself enjoying herself as Carson told her jokes and suddenly wasn't so sketchy anymore.

After several fast numbers, Keith Urban came on stage, elicting as many cheers as the other performers. He gave a rousing speech saluting the American servicemen and women fighting the War on Terror, praising the alliance between the U.S. and his native Australia, saying that in the dark days of the Cold War, as the Soviet-inspired revolutions in Southeast Asia brought the Communist bloc closer and closer to Australia's shores, America was a beacon of hope and inspiration for the free peoples of the Pacific region. He reminded the audience to remember the cost it took for us to remain free, that it was because of the sacrifices made by those courageous troops that they could be here, celebrating Independence Day with their friends and loved ones. Behrooz sniffed and quickly wiped away a tear from his eyes, then Keith Urban's portion of the concert began with colorful lights flashing across the audience.

"You have a cold?" Casey asked, hearing Behrooz sniff.  
"Yeah, its the soda or something, I must have choked," he said, quickly recovering.

She didn't give much more thought to it, then a slow song came up, "Making Memories of Us." As the soft, soothing music played, Behrooz look a deep breath, exhausted from the grooving earlier, and looked straight into Casey's large, sparkling blue eyes and leaned forward to kiss her, slowly, on her lips this time. He hoped he wasn't rushing too fast, but he was more convinced as she leaned forward too with a content look on her face and their lips met slowly amid the music. He took a deep breath, smelling her strawberry-tinged freshly washed hair, and knew that even if the 72 virgins in paradise promised by Navi were true, his real paradise was right here, right now.

The concert ended with an extravagant fireworks display over the stage, which was coupled with the fireworks shooting up into the clear sky from downtown Charlotte, made the heavens a kaleidoscope of color and sound, the faces of Behrooz and his friends lit up by the sparkling reds, glittering greens, and a wide assortment of colors flashing across the skies overhead.

His wonderful weekend was dealt a heavy blow less than half an hour later. The drive away from the concert had been uneventful, up until Behrooz took the off-ramp toward her house.  
Casey, who was in the passenger seat, pointed up ahead and said, "That Exxon has the cheapest gas prices around here, and it might get higher tomorrow, since its so damn unpredictable right now, so I would suggest filling up now. You're almost down to empty anyway."  
"Cool," Behrooz replied. "Yeah, good idea. Better take it from a local."

Behrooz turned the SUV into the 24-Hour Exxon and pulled under the bright flouresence lights that made the pumps area under the gas station canopy. Suddenly, a Land Rover came from the other side fast and nearly collided with Behrooz as pulled up to a pump. The Land Rover swirved and went beyond the canopy, going in reverse and settling at another pump. Behrooz eyed the vehicle with tinted windows carefully then got out and inserted his credit card into the machine, started the pump, then stepped aside, breathing the cool night air and hearing the crickets chirping.

He was startled as he saw three young men in military fatigues get out of the Land Rover, one of them darting across the lighted area into the Tiger Mart while the other two waited for the vehicle to fill up. One of them motioned to the other as they watched the third man go well inside the Tiger Mart to buy snacks and browse some magazines before approaching Behrooz.

"So you trying to kill us back there?" one of them said in thickly accented English.  
"What did you expect from a Koran thumping, goat herding towel head?" the other replied in the same accent and worn olive green military uniforms. Behrooz felt a tinge of fear as he saw the IDF insignia on their uniforms. Israeli Defense Forces.  
"Why are these people here?" he asked Casey, who was still sitting in the car.  
"I don't know. The Army has joint training exercises with foreign forces at some of the bases to the north, but…"  
"Hey, I asked you a question. What the hell were you trying to do?" the first man asked menacingly. "Doing Allah a service, right?" There was alcohol on his breath.

He said something to his friend in Hebrew and they both broke out laughing. Behrooz went to stop the pump. "Look, I don't want any trouble here. We got to this pump first, but we all had a long day, let's just…"  
"We're training with the Army here on the local Independence Day. You get that, Independence Day? With the AMERICAN Army." Casey's answer had just been confirmed. "You hate this country, don't you? You little punk!"  
"Hey, don't go anywhere, we are going to teach you a lesson. You're Iranian, aren't you? Let me tell you something," the second Israeli said, slamming his hand onto Marc's vehicle, "Two of my friends were killed when Palestinian terrorists supported by your country blew themselves up in…"

Allison got out of the car and said something to the men in her limited Hebrew, but the men laughed at her and said something to her back that she didn't understand, but was clearly an insult. He had actually called her a traitor for being friends with a Middle Easterner. Casey and Marc were also out now. The first Israeli took out a knife and went for the Jeep's front wheel, and Behrooz blocked his arm.  
"Getting tough, huh?" the soldier said, shoving Behrooz back roughly into the gas pump. Behrooz felt blood trickling down the back of his neck as he hit the pump hard, shattering part of the glass display. "This lesson isn't finished yet."  
Behrooz wanted to fight back but couldn't. After all he had done in his past, he deserved this. These men had every right to be angry at him, and even if they shot and killed him if they found he had helped Navi commit those unspeakable acts in Los Angeles, they were not completely wrong, he told himself. Perhaps this was the atonement finally coming.

"You guys, you're just a bunch of racist aholes who…" Casey began.  
The first Israeli grabbed Casey's shoulder and pressed her face close to hers. Suddenly, Behrooz swept his arm away from her and the Israelis looked at him in shock. The first soldier attacked Behrooz with a kick but he dodged it while the second charged again with the knife. Behrooz twisted it out of his hand by slamming the man's hand against the gas pump. Behrooz then took the bucket containing the windshield cleaning brush and splashed it into the man's face, the soapy water causing him to close his eyes in pain. Behrooz then hit him in the groin with the brush and elbowed him, blood coming out of the soldier's mouth.

Behrooz felt a blow come to his chest, then the second soldier came with a side punch, but Behrooz blocked him, sweeping him off his feet onto the hard concrete, stepping on his stomach and giving him another punch and slammed his head into the ground, yet the man was still fighting. He had to focus on the first Israeli, though.

The man came with a spinning back kick but Behrooz swung to the right and kicked him, the two men's legs tangled up for a bit before Behrooz sent his opponent crashing into a trash can, spilling its contents across the pavement. Behrooz then saw the other soldier come and kicked him in the stomach, followed by a punch to the forehead that knocked him out cold.  
The second man picked up the knife from the ground and charged, but suddenly stopped amid harsh shouting in Hebrew. The last Israeli had come out of the Tiger Mart and rushing over. He had been shouting for a long time but the men couldn't hear him in their drunkenness, and had to personally grab the soldier with the knife and force it out of his hands, ordering him to stand down. At the same time, there were flashing lights in the distance as sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene .

"Hold it!" the third soldier, obviously a superior officer, said, repeating his orders. The first police car showed up and the Israeli showed the officer his military credentials and permission from Fort Benning.  
"Colonel Ron Samuels's command will take care of this, I assure you these men will be punished and we will repay the gas station for the damage here. We accept responsibility."

The Israeli commander, identified by his uniform as Major Weinstein, went over to Behrooz as Allison and Marc came back with bandages from the store.  
"I don't have any excuses for this," he said, "My men were drunk and out of control and when we return to Israel I will write up this incident and have them court martialed. If you want to write a report, it will be helpful. What happened here does not reflect the conduct of the Israeli military."  
"Sir, I…" Behrooz stammered, "I don't want to press charges against them. I don't know how to say this….I can understand why they were angry, it doesn't justify how they attacked me, but if one of them did lose friends in Palestine, I….I know why they feel that way, and I'm sorry about what is happening in your country."  
Major Weinstein was speechless. "Are you sure you don't want these men punished more severely than simply for damaging American property?"  
"Yeah, I'm sure. I think I punished them enough," Behrooz said, the Major giving him a smile as the soldier on the ground regained consciousness and was taken into the Land Rover by the other. "Just make sure they know that…that was for touching my girl. That ain't no way to treat women, especially not my girlfriend."  
"Completely true," Weinstein said, shaking hands with Behrooz. "If you think that way, you're clearly not Hezbollah."

"Hey, you don't need to be ashamed of your heritage if its important to you," Casey said softly as she massaged his shoulder. She had offered to drive but Behrooz declined, only sorry he had put her through the incident at Exxon. "We all know you're American, but you shouldn't let the terrorists define what your ancestry is. I'd hate it if people looked at me and always brought up slavery, you know."

"Yeah, I don't feel a need to apologize for those pigs back there, or for the mistakes Israel's made." Allison said, "Cause I don't have anything to do with them. What's happening half a world away has nothing to do with you and me."  
Behrooz could understand the soldiers calling his Jewish friend a traitor to their religion, since he had been taught some basic Hebrew just in case Marwan dispatched the Araz family to Israel instead of America, but he didn't tell her that of course. "

There was something else, though, and it didn't surface until they reached Casey's house and on instinct they both went up to her bedroom instead of Behrooz sleeping on the couch. She opened her window and let the fresh air in, looking at a sky filled with a thousand bright stars and a half moon.  
"So you did all that, for me?" she finally asked.  
He nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

Casey gently laid down on her soft bed with Behrooz and massaged his head, which was hurting more now that the shock of the fight had worn off. She had been unsure of where her relationship with "Robbie" had been doing, but its said that sometimes a stressful situation brings out the truth in people, and the truth was that Robbie truly cared about her, cared enough to challenge two seasoned soldiers to a hand-to-hand fight on her behalf.  
"Hey, that Keith Urban song, that's our song, ok?"  
"Definitely," Casey said, "Can't think of anything better, you're just so good at reading my mind."

Before they both drifted off to sleep, they shared a long passionate kiss that finally allowed them to let out the feelings they've had for one another, feelings that they just weren't even going to try to hide anymore.


	11. Break Away

NOTE: For unfamiliar readers, the terrorist attacks referenced in this chapter are well chronicled in "Season 6 Europe" which is set in Paris and London on modern Europe's darkest day

_NOTE: For unfamiliar readers, the terrorist attacks referenced in this chapter are well chronicled in "Season 6 Europe" which is set in Paris and London on modern Europe's darkest day. Finish reading "Season 6 Europe" if you don't want any spoilers for that fic. _

_Chapters 11-14 will be the final arc of the story. This segment is the emotional roller coaster that's been promised before ;)))))_

CHAPTER 11: Break Away

Behrooz woke to the summertime birds chirping and the ray of light from the Southern sun illuminating the bedroom, painting rainbows on the quilt covers and the dresser. His arm was numb, but he couldn't get himself to move it as he saw Casey's head resting on it. She looked so peaceful in her sleep, her soft features basking in the light. Then as the branches covering the sun swayed with the wind, he saw a rainbow dance across her sparkling blonde hair, and finally her shiny blue eyes flickered open.

"Hey, good morning, Robbie," she said with a serene smile, giving him a kiss.  
"Awww, I'm tired," he said as he rolled over, feeling the soft tickle of Casey's hair on his face.

"But we're going to the park today with my fam, so you'd better get yourself up." She playfully took her pillow and struck him with him.  
"Hey, hey, okay, I'm up," Behrooz said, hitting her on the head with his own pillow. She responded by hitting him in the stomach, causing him to fall back. "No one beats me in a pillow fight, ever," she said triumphantly as she went to the mirror. "Eww, my hair's a mess."

"No, you look really cute like that, Case," Behrooz said. She absolutely did. He loved her more and more every day, no matter how she was dressed or what she wore, whether in that cute cowgirl outfit, her tie dyed shirt, or whether she was dancing along in a concert or acting crazily drunk at a party.  
They had breakfast together with her family and their friends, including Danielle. Danielle herself was more and more upset as she saw Behrooz and Casey get intimate with one another, but it would have to wait until they were back at the beach before she could do anything about it.

Behrooz finally found a chance to call up Mrs. Shiraz and ask her if she had read his e-mail with the attached pictures of him and his girlfriend.  
"You were nervous, weren't you, Behrooz?" Venus Shiraz asked as she sat at her computer at their sun-splashed suburban Maryland home, "That's why you e-mailed me first instead of just called me about it. I guess technology makes life easier nowadays."

Behrooz had to admit it was true. Just look at what happened when he had to let Dani know he was in town, he told himself. Thank God for Facebook!  
"Yeah, I guess," he said.

"Well Behrooz, there is nothing to be nervous about. I am not Dina. She lost her way so many years ago when she married Navi and began going to his mosque. She used to be so open-minded about things, it is a shame what happened to my best friend."

There was a hint of sorrow in Mrs. Shiraz's voice. She had grown up together just a couple houses apart in Turkey, where both of their families had fled after the imams seized power in Iran. She remembered the good, innocent Dina, chasing after ice cream trucks together, flying kites in the park, and going to the movies and shopping together. It devastated Venus when Dina met Navi Araz at school and was drawn to his mosque and the radical beliefs of its radical Sunni preacher, Yaffa Abbas of Syria. While they continued to be the best of friends, Venus knew Dina was lost as she began covering her hair and went to movies and Western restaurants less and less. In Turkey, Venus ran a daycare and took care of a young Behrooz for free. When the Arazes moved to the U.S., supposedly for Navi's job, she was glad that perhaps he was finally opening up his mind to the modern world and the blessings of the West. Little did she know that Dina was only further entrenched in the virulent Islamism their families have fled from Iran, but that the reason for her being in America was to plot a terrorist attack that would kill millions.

She immediately agreed to take in Behrooz as part of witness protection. After all, she had no contact with Dina when she moved to Maryland following her husband's job offer at the Marriott company headquartered outside of Washington, D.C. She was glad the FBI had begun to re-educate Behrooz, and she and her husband finished the task by taking them to major league baseball teams, boating out on Chesapeake Bay, skiing in West Virginia, and other uniquely American activities. He had seen Behrooz change as they showed him the other side of America, driving down quiet country roads past towering cornfields, eating delicious waffles and pancakes at highway rest stops, and exploring the rich history of the American Revolution and the Civil War that dotted the Mid-Atlantic region. She showed him how America was not about so-called "criminals" like David Palmer, John Keeler, and James Heller, but also about heroes and patriots like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams who stood up for the cause of freedom and justice to win a new country for their descenents, and a way of life and set of values that would inspire the rest of the world. It was important to remember their Middle Eastern heritage, but it was also important to take the time to just be down-home American.

She had almost leapt with joy as she saw the pictures of Behrooz and Casey. This was the completion, if you will, of Behrooz's journey back from the brink, and everything that she had done had paid off.

Venus Shiraz continued talking into her phone, "Robbie, you were worried I would not approved of Casey?" she asked, "She's everything you want in a woman, you know. She's very beautiful, yes, but more importantly she seems like a very good, caring person, she is intelligent and educated, what more could I ask for?"

"It's, yeah, you were right, it's just that I thought you might want me to only be with Middle Eastern girls," Behrooz said hesitantly.  
"Robbie, what I believe is that you date and marry people, not nationalities, and that everyone is a unique individual. What kind of person a girl is matters more than where her ancestors come from or which God she prays to, shouldn't it?"  
Behrooz's heart jumped. "Yeah, of course, it's just that I didn't think you'll believe that."

"Well I do, Robbie. Hopefully Casey will visit you up here some time once you're back in school. I'd like to meet her in person." As if on cue, Casey came into the kitchen with the dog, preparing some dog chow for the Golden Retriever. "She's actually here right now, want to talk to her?"

Behrooz smiled to himself as he helped prepare breakfast, listening in as Casey and his "mom" chatted away for several minutes. At that moment, Danielle brushed past him with a sullen expression on her face. Besides her, he was probably out of the woods, Behrooz thought to himself.

ONE WEEK LATER- KILL DEVIL HILLS, NORTH CAROLINA

The news was always bad these days, but this one was the worst. Behrooz and Danielle knew that they couldn't hide their past any longer when the first deadly news of the day reached the American morning news broadcasts as Danielle set up the tables at Outback Steakhouse and Behrooz listened to the radio on his late morning drive down U.S. Highway 158 toward the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Almost 300 people were dead in Baghdad after a deadly bombing that tore apart entire city blocks just across from the Green Zone, the headquarters for the coalition military forces and the fledging new Iraqi government. Fighting had broken out across Iraq, with savage house to house combat reported in Basra, Kirkuk, and Fallujah between Sunni militants and the Iraqi Army. This was followed minutes later by news from Paris of 3 commercial airliners shot down by Islamic terrorists near Charles De Gaulle International Airport, a computer virus causing a major blackout across northern France, then a major riot in the Paris slums that left thousands dead and involved the deployment of the British Royal Marines as peacekeepers. The Europeans' dreams of a peaceful Olympics that would surpass Beijing's 2008 Communist propaganda extravaganza was gone as the streets of Paris turned into scenes from Baghdad and Beirut. Even more troubling, reports were now coming in from the Middle East that the U.S. shot down three Iranian MiG-29s that had crossed into Iraqi airspace.

CTU and FBI finally reached Behrooz and Danielle, telling them that their friend Curtis Manning had led the team that was wiped out in the Baghdad explosion. The other servers and managers at Outback saw Danielle crying in a corner when she was not serving anyone, and Rick Peterson, the customer with the nice waterside cottage on her jogging route, asked if anything was wrong. She told him, truthfully, was that one of her friends had been killed in action in Iraq. He told her to hang in tight, to take comfort in the knowledge that the cause was just, but she wondered if Rick ever faced this situation himself if he could be able to follow his own advice. Inside, she was seething at this man and his buddies right now. Here they were, going deep sea fishing, relaxing on the golf course and enjoying entrees of local seafood and Outback's signature steaks while others were dying for their freedom. She thought about all the innocent people on board the planes shot down, the people in Paris' whose homes were shot up and firebombed by the rioters and was filled with uncontrollable emotions.

On the national seashore that day, the mood was somber, the sound of the outboard motors and the splashing of the water against the boats, docks, and marshes unpunctured by laughter and gossip, only by radio broadcasts. Behrooz had a look of shame on his face, even though Marc tried to comfort him. He wouldn't mind if anyone here attacked him on this day when people allied with his father murdered countless innocents on the other side of the Atlantic, because he had already been willing to take a beating from two well-trained Israeli soldiers. He thanked God when the news revealed that the subsequent attacks on London and two other large British cities were the work of an Northern Irish fringe group, but the day closed with the revelation that Islamic radicals had plotted to detonate a neutron bomb in London and in order to stop the crisis, British fighter jets launched airstrikes on their own soil to neutralize a sprawling terrorist compound in the Islamic part of London. The ramifications of this day would haunt the world for years and even decades, but when it was all over, Behrooz and Danielle had both relived the worst day of their lives.

It had to be another week later before Danielle finally found the courage to approach Casey, as she was watering the flowers in the cottage garden. By this time, the world had come to grips more with the deadly events in Europe, and the Olympics were back on track, a massive bloodbath in London narrowly averted, and the French military had retaken the suburban ghettoes and put them in lockdown, ending the riots, arresting guilty participants, and deporting illegals. Under intense domestic and international pressure, Iran admitted that its planes "accidentally" crossed into eastern Iraq, so the world finally came back from the brink.

Behrooz gave out from the new screen door. "Alright Case, gotta go back and finish my lab report now."  
"Cool. Thanks for your help! Let me know if you want to surf tomorrow, I'll bring my board when I lifeguard tomorrow."  
"Yeah, definitely, I'll IM you tonight once I'm done with this crap."

"I guess you and him are pretty glued to each other now," Danielle said in the softest, most compassionate tone she can muster, which was convincing enough. Even though the FBI guy from Atlanta had said she had a chance of going back to L.A., Casey was her still one of her best friends, and she cared about her. Danielle felt it was so unfair that Casey had no idea what she was getting herself into, and who Robbie Shiraz really was.

"Yeah, he's amazing, just so chill all the time, such a nice guy," Casey replied as she took the hose and re-filled the water bucket on the lush green lawn.  
"I'm, you know, I'm just saying this cause you're my friend and I care about you, but just, don't you think you're rushing into this a bit too fast? Like cause Matt was an ahole and broke your heart, and he was there for you, but I mean, don't you just want to give it a little time?"  
Casey didn't give it much thought. She had known someone would say that to her sooner or later.  
"You know, it just feels so right, me and him," she replied, her voice showing the love she felt for Behrooz, "Sometimes, you just know it, you know what I mean?"  
"Yeah, I guess. It's just that you should you know REALLY make sure he's the one for you."  
"I think he is, I mean, my family loves him, even Uncle Dale, and I really just wish I'd known Robbie before now and saved all that grief with Matt."  
"Well, by all means go for it then," Danielle said. Inside, she was cursing herself, knowing that this attempt wasn't going too well, but she couldn't blame her friend. Any girl in Casey's situation would probably be reacting the same way she was doing right now.

Casey thought about what Danielle had said as she finished with the plant watering and poured herself a nice cold pink lemonade to enjoy on the front steps. Yes, she did rush into this relationship rather quickly, and Matt had been the only other guy she had a serious relationship with in her life. Would she rather be like Allison, Becca, and Elyse with their dozens of attempts at finding real love but never getting anything that lasted? No, she told herself. This summer was a turning point, she thought to herself as she remembered Becca telling her about how she felt Marc Fisher was "so nice" and "cute". Casey's dad had always told her to trust her instincts, and that its been her gift ever since she was a little girl. She hoped that was still true today.

Danielle simply could not take it anymore. The following morning, she had a headache and got another server to cover for her at work and she drove back to the giant sand dunes at Jockey Ridge, where she had her first private reunion with Behrooz at the beginning of the summer. She walked some ways past swarms of tourists and visitor traffic and people waiting for hang gliding lessons until she finally found a relatively secluded spot where she could be alone, looking out at the water. It seemed as if the world was laughing at her plight. In the movies, this would be an overcast day, a somber mood, especially after what she had lost and what she had done to her own sister. Not just any sister, but her identical twin sister. Across the ocean, tens of thousands of people were going through what she had gone through for the past three years, loving a loved one to the evil in the world. Yet she could still hear the innocent laughing of the hang gliders, boaters, and jet skiers, and a bright summer sun shown on a blue sky punctured only by a few puffy clouds, the warm sun pressing down on her face like she was in a lawn chair asking for more of it.

She hated everyone right now. She hated these people for being so happy while she was so sad and miserable. There was nobody she could talk to in the world, and she began thinking if she ever did go back to California, would her friends there even care about her anymore? They'd probably learned to move on without her after she had just simply disappeared off the face of the Earth, anything that ever indicated the existence of Danielle Pendleton gone, from her driver's license to her Myspace profile.

What if Soheil Sherek is never convicted in Turkey and Tomas is never executed? Soheil was a rich, powerful man and could hire good lawyers, and this was the same anywhere in the world, Turkey or America. If OJ Simpson can get away with murder, couldn't Soheil Sherek get off easy too? She shuddered at the thought. For the rest of her life, she would have to pretend someone she's not. There was nothing wrong with being from Kansas City, going to the University of North Carolina, going to country music concerts, and there was definitely nothing wrong with living in a vacation cottage and hanging out on the beach all summer. In fact, she could see why given a free choice, there are many people out there who no doubt would rather be Danielle McSpadden of Kansas City than Danielle Pendleton of Los Angeles. That's not the problem, she told herself, the problem is that its just not ME!! She didn't have that choice, and she just can't go on living a lie for the rest of her life.

What outraged her the most was that Behrooz was doing perfectly fine right now. He could have prevented Debbie's death if he acted sooner, if he had informed CTU about his parents months or even years ago, Danielle told herself. And in contrast to her, Behrooz didn't seem to be haunted by any such past demons. There he always was, surfing on the beach, getting drunk with his friends, tearing through the sound on powerboats, and worst of all getting one of her new best friends to fall in love with him. How could Casey be so stupid? I've known her for two friggin years and she just brushed aside my advice like I was nobody. Casey cared more about this guy she's known for not much more than a month than about me! Sometimes, as she saw the news broadcasts about how Muslim Londoners had helped the Mesopotamia Jihad Brigade and Hezbollah with the neutron bomb plot, how the families of the airplane shootdowns were coping with the loss of loved ones, and how the Middle Eastern population of the Paris slums fought alongside foreign terrorists against French soldiers and police, she sincerely wished Behrooz was dead, that she could just take a gun and shoot him, like Dina Araz shot Debbie.

That's it, Danielle decided, that's what she would have to do. Crying was not going to help because Behrooz didn't know how she felt, nor would he care. No, she's rather be dead than just live that lie for the rest of her life, but she wanted to make Behrooz pay first. She forced herself to stand up straight as she walked back to her car, then drove toward Outback Steakhouse. If it all ends today, she wanted at least one last day of normalcy, and she wanted her last meal to be a good one.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY  
Soheil Sherek nervously paced around his luxurious condo on the Asian side of the Bosphorous Strait. The last couple years had taken a great toll on him, he thought as he stood on the balcony looking at supertankers, cruise ships, and container ships sailing the straits and the lights coming on across the water on the European side. On the balcony table was the 3rd page of the local daily newspaper's business section, where his stocks had fallen once again and there was an article about how his son's terrorism scandal had affected his store's business.

Suddenly, he heard his phone ring. The ringtone was that of Nick Schneider, the mercenary in charge of his covert operation to hunt down Behrooz Araz and Danielle Pendleton. This was the news he had been waiting for. Would it mean his son would be out of prison, his name cleared, and the people who spoke ill of the Sherek family silenced? He nervously said a prayer to Allah, whom he didn't really believe in, and answered it.  
"Yes, Nick?" he asked.  
"Mr. Sherek, unfortunately I have some bad news for you."  
Soheil squeezed the phone tightly. "What is it?"  
"The FBI caught our man in Philadelphia trying to hack into the FBI's records In a plea bargain agreement, he named you and is planning to fully cooperate with the Feds. He's in FBI custody and getting to him before he discloses everything he knows about you will not be feasible."

"How much does he know?" Soheil asked nervously, sweating streaming down his face.  
"Enough. I suggest you get yourself out of town when there's still enough time. Your government likes to suck up to ours any chance they've got, and once the FBI tells them about this, you'll see cop cars pulling up on your doorstep."  
"How this did happen? We were both careful, we had everything covered."  
"I don't know, but I'm just as screwed as you are. I'm leaving for Central America today, gotta lay low for some time and get a new identity. There's nothing we can do now."

Nick hung up, and Soheil shook uncontrollably. He knew this was over. Nick was right, he thought as he looked at the street below. It was only a matter of time before the cops came knocking on his door. Yes, Nick could go to Central America, but Soheil couldn't. He was too well-known to be completely hidden anywhere, and his name was probably already on a no-travel list that the government was sending to every airport, train station, and border crossing in Turkey. There was no way out, and he was not going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Soheil Sherek walked out onto his balcony one last time, stood on the railing, then jumped into the night.

Danielle quickly made sure the manager was not looking as she got two bottles of whiskey and placed them in a shopping bag, quickly putting them under the counter of the Outback bar, where customers were thinning out toward closing time, the only ones left simultaneously watching the Australia play Japan in the men's soccer gold medal match and USA play Finland in women's basketball. She needed the alcohol to calm her nerves despite her certainty in what she set out to do. She wanted to say goodbye to Casey and her friends, but decided it wasn't worth it. Did they really give a damn about her anyway?

No, Casey, Elyse, Allison, and Becca were just a bunch of shallow, self-absorbed, narrow-minded people and she only became friends with them because they lived in the same freshman dorm at college and she had to have a group of friends to fit in and not attract attention. Part of Danielle knew that she didn't really believe that, and that it was the anger controlling her mind right now that was making think this way. But she had to be sure of herself, or what she was going to do. Casey and the rest were just part of the lie she had been living. In a normal world, if everything hadn't happened that fateful day, she would never have her new friends anyway, and there wasn't any way she was going to be with them forever. Either she could go back to California and be her old self again, or she would end things this way. Either way, she was not going to be Danielle McSpadden for the rest of her life.

Suddenly she raged at everything and just wished the next hurricane would come and wash all this away. She hated all these people in their minivans and RVs coming to the beach, she hated the fast food outlets and strip malls that dotted the highway in the center of town, because all of this was only examples of the shallowness and impersonal depravity of the world. She was glad to be leaving all this behind, she told herself. She had already downed the equivalent of two shots of whiskey and gin but could still drive straight, and made the left around a "Wings" store, the one where Elyse worked. It was still open. I could go in and say goodbye, she thought. Out of all the girls at the cottage, Elyse was the one most like her, even though even Elyse herself didn't know that. Mixed tears of rage and regret filled Danielle's eyes. Elyse would have loved a discussion about the Yankees and the Dodgers, about Indian and Spanish music, and about coffeehouses and punk rock bands, but it couldn't have happened. Stopping by now, Elyse would offer to go back to the cottage with her together, and she wasn't going back. Her mind was set.

She breathed in the humid Southern air as she took the bottle of gin with her as she went down the jogging trail toward the sandbar by Rick Peterson's yard. Once again, everything was so normal, the chirping of the crickets, the tiny splashes of the sea turtles moving around in the estuary, the white forms of the sea gulls against the black sky and a bright haze from the shopping centers and hotels on the Atlantic Ocean side of Kill Devil Hills. She gulped down more of the gin, feeling it burn up her throat but relishing this feeling. She had to be tough, and she had to stop trembling. Danielle finally threw up a little but forced herself to stop, drinking even more, then stumbled across the yard, her vision in a blur. She saw Debbie in that white sheet in the morgue, inviting her to join her there. "I'm coming sis," she said, "After I do what I gotta do tonight."

Danielle went over to Peterson's yard and found the shack. During their conversations at Outback, Rick had mentioned he enjoyed hunting in addition to fishing, and she figured this was where he kept his guns. She didn't know if she was in any condition to go to the Sea Ranch, find Behrooz, then finish herself off in the condition she was in, but she had to do it somehow. The door opened with a creak and she saw some shotguns in the shack. She tiptoed into the shack, not knowing she was stumbling and reached the weapon, loading the cartridges in. She had to thank that part of her Missouri identity for it. If you're an authentic Missourian, you knew how to shoot a gun and hunt foxes, and so did she at this point. She finished loading the gun and turned around, seeing a dark shadow standing over her.

"Danielle, what are you doing?" a voice asked.  
She stumbled around some more and waved the gun around wildly, her fingers slipping. "Whoever you are, just get the hell away from me!" she screamed, "I don't know who you are and I don't plan on shooting you so just back off and let me go where I need to!"  
Her voice echoed far across the foggy reaches of Albemarle Sound, lit only by the vacation home lights and the Bodie Island lighthouse far across the water.

"It's okay, Danielle, just give me the gun, nobody's going to hurt you."  
She began screaming again but suddenly the blur faded into blackness and the last thing she felt was the heavy shotgun falling from her hand and her head contacting the soft grass.


	12. Find My Way Back

CHAPTER 12: Finding My Way Back

CHAPTER 12: Finding My Way Back

When she woke, her head and stomach were both killing her, but her vision was less blurred now. Danielle looked up and saw a ceiling fan rotating at moderate speed. Instinctively she reached for the shotgun, but her hands found only empty space.

"She's awake," Danielle heard a middle-aged black woman say.  
"Dani, are you okay?" Rick Peterson's voice asked as he came over to the living room couch where he and his wife had set Dani down, "What on Earth were you doing?"  
Danielle could smell the alcohol from her own breath and from where the gin had stained her clothes when she had dropped the bottle along with the shotgun.

Danielle knew she was trapped, and that there wasn't any way she could go after Behrooz anymore. At least she had woken up inside Rick's house instead of in the hospital or, even worse, the police station. The clock on the wall said the time was 1:15 AM, and Rick hadn't yet called the cops, but she knew that she better explain this real well so that he doesn't change his mind. After all, she had trespassed on his property, broken into his shack, and took a shotgun so she could kill someone.

She began mumbling something very quickly, but Rick leaned over her and rubbed her back. "It's okay, Dani, just stay calm. Tell me what's wrong."

"Look….I know it's hard to believe, but…"  
"Nobody's going to hurt you here, okay?" he said in a soothing voice. He whispered to his wife, "It's ok, she's just so scared. Don't worry about me."

Danielle realized that she had no choice but to tell the truth right now, especially since the chances of Rick Peterson being connected to the Islamic terrorist cells in Los Angeles was right around zero. She started by saying she was in the witness protection program, remaining as coherent as possible, and recalled the day three years ago when James Heller and Audrey Raines were kidnapped, the San Gabriel Island reactor melted down, and President Keeler's plane was shot out of the sky. The part about the stolen warhead hadn't been mentioned in the news, unlike the neutron bomb in London, so she didn't bring it up. She talked about Behrooz, whom Rick had seen before on the beach, who he really was, and how he first met her and her sister Debbie.

Tears streamed down her face as she struggled through the part where Debbie was not only poisoned but also shot by Behrooz' mother, Rick handing her tissues and holding her trembling hands as she talked. She finally went into the anger, hatred, and disgust she felt as she saw Behrooz acting so carefree and even dating one of her best new friends. There was a long silence after she finished her story, which took a good twenty minutes.

"I'm sorry. I know. I deserve to be in jail for this, I broke into your shed and…yeah I just…decided I couldn't wait," she sobbed, "And I thought there would be guns here and I could just do it tonight and never have to live like this again."

"Dani," Rick said softly, "I'm not going to turn you in to the police. All this time I've known you, I thought you were just that pleasant, sweet, fun girl, I had no idea you had to carry so much with you and I'm sorry."  
"Thanks," she managed weakly, her strength completely drained from her body now.  
Mrs. Peterson brought some bottled spring water and she gladly drank, which brought some relief.

"But," Rick said, "I need to know you're not going to get a gun from somewhere else and go through with your plan. Because now that I know what you had intended to do, it would be a crime not for me to prevent it from happening."  
"It's his fault my sister's dead, he ruined my entire life now, and my parents…"

"Danielle, think about the things you've gained," he said, sounding awfully like her psychiatrist in Missouri. "None of us know what life will bring us, but we just have to make the most of it. Even if you're not really being the real you, I like you, Dani. You're a wonderful person. It doesn't matter what you change your name to, where you're from or where you pretend to be from, what your hobbies are, who you're friends with. I know that deep down, where it really matters, you're still the person you've always been. How you helped me recharge my car that time at the restaurant when I could have just waited for AAA, how you like to walk out to that sandbar out there and just feel the tide wash over your feet. I don't think the FBI taught you those things.  
But here, look at all the friends you have. You've got people who care about you, all of the wonderful girls you're spending the summer with, the wonderful people you work with. Your neighbors, everyone."

"Yeah, I know. Sometimes it's just so hard to remember people still care about me. I thought Casey just brushed me aside when I was trying to help her."  
"She's just madly in love right now," Rick said, "I don't think she's disregarding you or that she's anything less than a wonderful, true friend. She invited you to spend the summer here with her when she could have asked dozens of others. She took you home to her family, shared her world with you. Your friends want you to be happy. Think about how hurt she, Allie, Becca, and Elyse would be if you had gone through with your plan tonight."

She nodded slowly despite the pain in her neck and the throbbing in her head. "Yeah, you're right. I care about Casey, that's why I didn't want her to get hurt. I was so scared for her, these nightmares, in one of them, Behrooz killed her the way his mom killed Debbie. But what you said about how in a way I'm still the old Debbie, what about Behrooz? How do I know he's changed?"  
"I don't think Behrooz was evil," Rick said, "He was just misguided. He grew up learning to hate. Dani, I grew up in the civil rights era, and there were some people where I came from who hated people like me because that's the way they've been raised. Now should I blame them personally, or blame their parents, and the culture they lived in?"

Danielle didn't know how to respond, so Rick continued.  
"Whether forced to or not, you're pretty familiar with Kenny Chesney, right?"  
She nodded.  
"Me too. Being from Nashville, you know, I actually ran into the guy once on the street. Kinda like you and actors in L.A., right?"  
She laughed weakly. "I did meet Kristin from Laguna Beach once but that was about it. Beverly Hills was, well, more exclusive than Nashville, and most of us couldn't afford Rodeo Drive anyway."  
He nodded. "I see. Anyway, you know Kenny's song, Some People Change? That's what I believe. I think there's good in everyone, and people tend to keep what's good in them, like you did even after you got your new identity, and that they can change the bad if they really want to. I would say Robbie got a second chance, and you should be glad for him. And it's because of you that he's changed."

"Really?"  
"Dani, judging from your story, its after he met you and Debbie that he began to question what's been taught to him at home and in his mosque. You're the reason he met your sister, yes, and meeting her, he began to realize what he's been taught to believe about our country and our people isn't true. I'm sorry he acted too late to save your sister, and that part will always hurt you, I'm not gonna lie, but he acted in time so that CTU could stop all the other nuclear power plants from melting down. If it wasn't for you, hundreds of thousands of people across this country will be dead, perhaps even me. We've got a couple reactors in Tennessee. But its because of Robbie too. He's the one who finally found the courage to stand up to his parents and do the right thing."

"I've never thought of it this way," she finally replied. Even the CTU and FBI agents who handled her hadn't put things this way, nor her shrinks. At first, CTU had provided her a therapist named Barry Landis, whose solution for all of her troubles was to "breathe", and CTU themselves took credit for stopping Marwan.

"You don't need to worry about him hurting any of your friends, and besides, being here, knowing them, has allowed Robbie to express his new self. Maybe the reason he feels so attached to Casey is because he blames himself for your sister, and wants to be able to love and care for another girl, even though he knows he'll never be able to make up for Debbie."

"I know," Debbie said, her mind a mess now. Hours ago, she wanted to kill Behrooz then shoot herself in the head to escape this world, and now, she was having the deepest heart to heart therapy session she had in years, and it was with one of her customer friends at Outback Steakhouse. AND, he had convincingly persuaded her to believe that he was alive partly because of her and her sister, and because of Behrooz.  
"But I just don't know how I can ever forgive him about Debbie. I still think he could have saved her. If he had broken up with her, or if he had told CTU earlier. I don't know. Sometimes I just hate him, I just hate all of them. I just wish we'd just drop a couple nukes over there and get it over with."

"Dani, let me tell you a story," he said, grabbing some Tropicana ruby red grapefruit juice from the fridge and pouring some for her in a glass cup.  
"Before the Civil War, my family worked on the Peterson plantation in southern Tennesseee. That's how I got my name, from our owners. As you probably know from history class, white people controlled everything in my town and did everything to stop my ancestors from getting a fair shot. The Peterson family no doubt participated in much of this, and even after they lost a lot of their land during the Depression, a lot of them still had influence. Especially Stewart, who became the mayor in 1950 and served for several decades."

Danielle could tell it pained Rick to tell this story, but she could also see that it was one that he really felt she should know about. She owed it to Rick to hear him out, especially after he decided not to call the police about the shotgun.

"The civil rights period was especially difficult for my town. My father was able to set up his own lumber business but the police always harassed him, and I remember the town doing nothing as people burned crosses in front of my father's house and the homes of other black people there. One day the Klan held a rally in front of city hall and Stewart Peterson brought out water coolers for them. As you might imagine, I had a lot of hatred in me growing up in a place like that, watching how people treated my father, having to go to school with soldiers guarding me so I wouldn't be lynched.

Then everything changed. I eventually went off to Knoxville for college, got my degree. Through those years I was a member of the Black Panthers and we held a lot of marches. I wrote a lot of things in the school newspaper that, well, triggered a lot of emotions. But when I was in Knoxville, I also saw things and met people who made me question the world I knew. I remember one day, these thugs jumped me because I wrote something about how black people were drafted more heavily to go to Vietnam, and it didn't sit well with them. They smashed my head into my car window, they broke my nose, kicked me over and over again, but it was two white cops who saved me that day.

Then I realized I had friends on campus who agreed with me, and they were not all black. Back in my old town, Stewart's family ran into some hard times. The old man got himself killed drag racing his car, his son Tom, well Tom got lost in college, smoked a lot of weed, and never graduated. You can imagine what a twist of fate it was when he showed up at my dad's company looking for work. Peterson Construction was the only place still doing well after trouble broke out in the Mideast, the gas prices skyrocketed by 300 and the economy went in a tailspin.

Well, of course my dad hired Tom. It was a historic moment for the black community. My great great grandparents were whipped and beaten by his on that old plantation, and how Tom was working for our family, he had to listen to my dad, and I've never seen my father so proud in my life. Of course I was happy, I was glad to see my family finally stand up to the past. But after my experience in college and grad school, I wasn't so sure about the so-called struggle anymore. You see, my dad always gave Tom Peterson a hard time, made him to the hardest s that could be found, and I knew my dad was doing it to spite him, just cause he could. After everything my family's gone through through the last century and a half I couldn't blame him.

You know, Tom was the best worker in the company, and my dad saw that too. He wanted to let Tom know how much he appreciated his efforts, but he couldn't. He didn't want to debase himself to that family again, but when I became manager upon my father's retirement, my cousins tried to force me out so they could take over, but Tom stood by me. See, he didn't really care about the past, or the implications of working under my father when his ancestors owned mine on that plantation. He was just glad that my father gave him a job when he most needed one, when nobody else in town would help him. Me and Tom became very close friends, and I made him my partner when we moved Peterson Construction to Nashville, and now we've got two brand-new subdivisions planned outside the city."

Dani didn't know how to respond at first. She understood now why Rick had told her about his past. The hatred he and his father had felt toward the white Peterson family and the white Southern establishment in general was the same she felt regarding Behrooz.

"Dani, what I'm getting at is that we can always get caught up in what's happened, trap ourselves in the past, but if we do that, the world will never be a better place. I've learned that through my life, through college, through the business world. Right now I am friends will all different kinds of people. Yes, at first I blamed Tom for not doing anything while his father was letting the Klan march in front of our yard, and I felt that it was too late when he finally came to terms with it, but where would that have gotten either of us? Now I know you're not going to go to Behrooz and be his bud for the rest of your life, but you have to learn to move on. You nearly threw your life away tonight, Dani."

As she had sobered up, the thought of what she had planned on doing began to haunt her. Her mind cleared as the anger slowly drained away. She wanted to live, she WAS lucky, she did have wonderful friends who cared about her. Yes, in a way, she was always going to be Danielle Pendleton. "You know Rick, I know what you're saying, but I keep on thinking back to that day when I found out what happened to Debbie, how it completely destroyed my parents, how I blamed myself for it."

"Dani, blaming yourself or hating Robbie isn't going to bring your sister back. Think about what Debbie would really want."  
"She comes to me in those dreams, it's different every time."

"Those are YOUR dreams, Dani, its what you think she wants depending on how you're feeling, but I think I have an idea of what she really wants, because its what I would want if God forbid I was in her position."

"What?" Danielle asked curiously, sitting up and leaning on the soft cushions on this couch, brushing back some strands of her light brown hair.  
"I think she wants to still be alive, and she can do that through you. Debbie died knowing Robbie was there for her, that he cared about her and tried to save her. And she wants to come to terms with him, and I'm only suggesting this because I see how much you love your sister, maybe you should do that for her."

"It's so hard," Dani replied, "It takes a really big person to do that, and I'm not sure I can, I'm really not. Rick, even your father, he never came to terms with the past, did he?"  
"No, he didn't." Rick Peterson took a deep breath and paused, putting his hands gently on her knees. It was good that she wasn't trembling anymore.  
"My father died carrying those grudges to the grave with him, but I think you ARE a big person, and that you can be an ever bigger person than him or even myself. Every time I see you and your friends out on the beach, jogging past here, at work, it fills me with hope. People like you are the future, and I've always believed that ya'll were better than us, that we're the ones who screwed up this world and maybe you can fix it a little. It gives me something to believe in."

Dani exhaled slowly. "Yeah, I'll think about that."

"And one more thing, you don't really have to put too much thought on ALL the details the Feds gave you. I hated country music when I was young, but I can't go without Kenny Chesney or Faith Hill on a two-hour drive anymore. You know, maybe you can just happen to….discover some of the things you used to like, eh?"

THE FOLLOWING MORNING  
Rick drove Danielle back to the cottage and she tiptoed inside. She slept soundly that night, and no doubt, in her dream Debbie told her that she never really hated Behrooz, and told her sister to move on with her life. "I'd love to have friends like yours," Debbie had said.

She slept until noon that day, just as Casey was coming in during her break at her lifeguarding job.  
"Hey, where were you last night?" Casey asked, pouring herself some sweet tea in the kitchen and grabbing a turkey sandwich. "Want anything from the fridge?"  
"Nah, I'm full and yeah, one of my friends from work dragged me to a party at their place in Kitty Hawk and I couldn't get a hold of you."

"Yeah, my phone was out of batteries. So how was it?"

Danielle was glad for the coincidence. She wasn't ready to reveal her real story yet again.  
"Well, I got pretty wasted, though I'm much better now, just got up."  
Casey laughed. "Yeah, definitely know how it feels. I'm trying to grow up and be less crazy and you're takin' my spot." She scooped up some of the pasta she had made the night before and put it in a bowl for Danielle as well as giving her some tea.

"You'll feel better, and plus I owe you one anyway. Marc was here last night with Becca and we ate all your waffles." She had a guilty look on her face.

"So I AM getting better," Danielle replied. The last night was just like some huge dream. Had she really been that close to ending it all? Everything with Rick went by like a blur yet it was all so vivid.

"See, didn't I tell you?" Casey said. "Now I'm just afraid if I hang around you too much I'm gonna get fat."


	13. Nothing to Lose

CHAPTER 13: Something's Gotta Give

CHAPTER 13: Nothing to Lose

Dammit, Behrooz thought as he drove his car across the Oregon Inlet Bridge on U.S. 158, passing over 4-wheel drive vehicles on an isolated fishing island and several charter ferries. The morning had been pretty interesting out in the sun, but this distinct ringtone was one he dreaded, the same one he got at the mall in Charlotte. Yep, just as she had thought, it was "COB". Who did Chloe set him up to meet with this time?

Behrooz tried to call Casey to say that he couldn't make it but she had busy signal, so he left a text message and followed through with the sudden change in plans. He looked at the blue sky with patchy cloud cover, not being able to see the CTU or DOD satellites in daytime, but she knew it was up there, watching him. He drove a couple miles north through the thickening traffic or beachgoers and made a left turn into the parking lot of Bushwackers Buffet, a popular lunch spot on the northern Outer Banks. Sure enough, Danielle's car was there too.

Behrooz walked into the joint, which had a stereo blasting Bruce Springsteen at the instant, and sure enough, the first person he saw waiting for them was Ellie, his FBI minder, who was also assigned to Danielle as well now. They look a seat by a window overlooking nothing but the parking lot and a garishly designed outlet mall.

"So, glad you're on time," Ellie said, "Chloe over at CTU-Los Angeles tells me both of you have gone pretty far in terms of your lives."  
"Yeah, about that trip to Charlotte, my girlfriend invited…"  
"I know that," Ellie replied in a Chloe-esque manner, "We're the FBI, it's our job to know things. Unlike CTU evidently, whose job is not only to allow anyone into their building, but to let anyone work for them."

Behrooz and Dani forced a laugh. Here was the inter-agency bickering again, and now it seems that the FBI hated CTU even more than they hated the CIA. Langley operated on foreign soil, but CTU operated domestically, creating even more jurisdictional issues.

Ellie continued, "Anyway, let's get down to business. Soheil Sherek killed himself yesterday in Turkey by jumping off an 11th floor balcony. A mercenary he hired to hunt the two of you down was arrested by us in Philly and he cut a deal. Sherek decided to take the easy way out rather than sit in prison for the rest of his life. That means both of you can have your old lives back. Behrooz, this means you go back to your relatives in L.A. or Turkey, or you can choose to continue being Robbie."

Danielle and Behrooz were both silent for a long time. Behrooz's only living relative in the U.S. was Uncle Naseem's widow, and it had also been partly his fault that his father had shot Naseem in that hospital. That was a no brainer. "I want to keep my current life," he said.

Danielle thought about the previous night and how she had been afraid she'll have to be Danielle McSpadden for the rest of life, and hours later, she was being told she could be her old self again, go back to California, and just pick up where things left off? But things were different now, and the past three years wasn't just a dark chapter in her life that she could forget. Suddenly, she didn't know if she wanted to return to L.A. Everything she saw there, everywhere she went, she would be reminded of Debbie, but hadn't Rick told her about not escaping or confronting or fighting the past, but accepting it? Yes, she had to do that. "Give me a couple days, I'll call you," she told Ellie.

"Oh, yeah, byeeee," Casey said, finishing her call with his friend as she got down from the stand and walked across the warm sand toward the wooden steps leading up to the pavement. She saw the old messages that came from Matt Mastranstuoni. Casey knew the shameless bastrd would try to win her back, and no doubt his friend had also been enlisted to help. Kyle had stopped by several times on the beach and at her cottage to try to convince her that Matt was sorry, but she wasn't listening. This was already the second chance she had given Matt, and she was through. Not trusting Kyle, she had even made it explicitly clear that he had better not give "Robbie" any problems for dating her, because Matt was the one who lost her when he decided to get involved in his affair with the hippie girl and the exotic exchange student. She would never know it, but she was the reason Kyle never bullied Behrooz about their new relationship.

She decided to make a quick trip to the computer store now that her break was free. She had another, on-and-off job at the beach which helped her resume as a computer science student. Besides lifeguarding, Casey would occasionally provide tech support to hotels, and she was actually quite proud of herself for saving the Ramada Inn from a world of hurt when their online reservations system crashed. This summer is already two thirds over, she thought with a tinge of sadness. Life sure goes by fast. It only seemed yesterday when she moved into that freshman dorm, all nervous and clinging on to her mom not wanting to go, and now she can't believe there's only a year left.

Yes, her summer was an amazing vacation short of Matt's heartache, but she agreed with the people who said college itself was an extended vacation, and she was only a year away from grad school, the real world, and finding a "real" job, probably cooped up in some office all day. She thought about her and Robbie too. He had mentioned he was applying to vet school in North Carolina since he'd fallen in love with this place, and she prayed that he could get in as an out-of-state student. She didn't know why it just all felt so right, but she wasn't complaining. She pulled into the parking lot and suddenly saw Behrooz's car parked there, and Danielle's a short walk away. What was going on?

"Robbie, I need to talk to you," Danielle said as Ellie drove off in her rental car. Behrooz nodded and they naturally went back past the loading area of the restaurants and stores toward a dock facing Albemarle Sound, which was much quieter.

"I just want you to know I don't blame you for my sister anymore. I've taken a lot of time this summer to think it over."  
Behrooz stood there, not knowing what to say. He had hoped she could say this someday, but now that it was actually happening, he felt deep pangs of guilt. He wanted to blame himself, to take the hurt and responsibility so she wouldn't have to shoulder it. Neither of them saw Casey walking toward the dock behind them, watching them from under a tree.

"What I'm saying is, I'm going to go back to L.A., but I'm not just going to forget about all my friends over here, and I can see how attached you are here, so I don't think its as simple as goodbye. I'm glad you finally found a way to move on, I really am," she said.

"Thanks," Behrooz managed. "It's because of Debbie that I turned against my parents, she's the hero. Two million people would have died that day if I never met you and your sister." He had always known this fact, but saying it out loud for the first time was completely different.

Dani looked out over the small marina filled with pleasure craft, then turned back toward Behrooz. "You know, there was a time when I was jealous of Debbie, that she's the one you loved, and…." She stopped, choking over her words. "I'm not doing this for myself, it's for Debbie, but I want to tell you its ok now. I forgive you. When my sister died, she still loved you, and this is the part that matters most. That's the part she'll remember when she's up above. I've always just thought about me, and what's I've lost, but I know that if I really love Debbie, I'd do what she wants."

She held out her hand, and Behrooz reached out, shaking it, but couldn't let go. Surprisingly, she couldn't either. Behrooz's mind raced. During all their time together at the beach, it was the first time the two had been so close, and Behrooz saw Debbie's eyes in her sisters. Maybe all the rest really was a dream. He slowly leaned over and gave her a quick but gentle kiss on the cheek. "Part of me will always love Debbie," he said.

The two turned back toward the parking lot and stopped in their tracks as they saw Casey standing there with a livid expression on her face.

"So, Robbie, THIS is what you couldn't explain about not being with me today, well OBVIOUSLY you can't explain it!"

Behrooz let go of Dani. "This isn't what it looks like, I promise…" How was he going to go through the witness protection explanation right now?  
"Robbie's right, it's a long story, we knew each other before…"

"Oh, that's just great, isn't it?" Casey shouted, "So Robbie, all this was just a lie so you can get back with HER? You never cared about me at all did you? I thought you loved me, I thought we had a freaking CHANCE! Now I see both of your cars parked by the same restaurant, and you two kissing and holding hands, how are you gonna explain it, you tell me!"

"I know why you're angry, but let's just find a time to sit down in private and talk, it's complicated."  
"No!" she screamed, attracting attention from boaters and passerby but she didn't' give a damn right now. "What's there to explain? Are you gonna say I'm seeing things, that's this is a dream, that I'm hallucinating about this whole thing or something?"  
Behrooz was silent. Now wasn't the right time to tell her the truth. In fact, he didn't know if he could ever tell anyone the truth, even after knowing he was no longer being hunted.

"Casey, please, let's just go back to the house, and I'll tell you everything."  
"Look, you slut, I don't ever want to see you again…"

"Just give me a chance…"  
"GO to hell!" she yelled, lunging forward and pushing Danielle hard in the torso, causing her to fall backward into the water with a large splash.  
"Robbie…just…don't say anything! Just…just leave me the hell alone right now, we're DONE!"

Behrooz and Danielle went their separate ways after that, her getting on the phone with her parents in Missouri and sharing the good news. They were happy, of course, but yet sad about the years that have been taken from their lives and their beloved daughter who they would never see again. She left out the part about Behrooz, and so also had to leave out the part about Casey. She didn't go straight back to the house after that, and didn't go to the sandbar since she didn't feel like telling Rick this whole second story, so she just drove through the area, taking the bridge to Roanoke Island past the aquarium, watching the waves of the sound splash against the sandy shores right next to the highway. Just as she was about to leave, part of her didn't want to.

Maybe if she had been Danielle McSpadden her entire life things would be different, she would have happily lived this life and had everyone believe she was the luckiest person alive, but thinking about what might have been never helped. What is is what is. She was Dani Pendleton, she had lost her sister, and she was finally going back to Los Angeles to finally deal with the loss. Witness protection had forced them to just draw a blank slate over their entire past, but now she had to confront it, visit Debbie's grave in California. She still had things to clear up with the girls, and another call to make to Ellie, but not now. For her last day in North Carolina, she was actually just like all of the visitors around here, here not to hide from an ugly past, but to enjoy the pleasantries that beach life offered.

She kept the radio dial on the country station as she went across another set of bridges south toward Cape Hatteras, enjoying the lush grasses and white sand dunes lining both sides as the road narrowed to a landscape littered with tiny islands and countless waterways on one side and the deep, blue-green Atlantic Ocean to the west. On one hand, she couldn't wait to at least be part of her old self again, but on the other she wasn't completely sure. Weird, she thought, what's wrong with me?

"Hey, thank God you're here!" Michelle from Wisconsin said as she pulled up on her mountain bike into the overhang in front of the Sea Isle, "Remember how you mentioned last time you could help with the music festival tonight if some crisis came up? Well something did come up."

Behrooz looked at her, trying desperately to fix his aloof expression. He was utterly depressed. Just as everything seemed to be right for the first time in his life, it all came crashing down. He called her house, but Elyse had picked up and said Casey was packing up some of her stuff and heading home in the evening to collect her thoughts, not saying when she would be back. She also told him not to go over, and that she wasn't even ready to see Danielle. Behrooz couldn't tell if Elyse's voice was understanding or if she blamed him for it, but he wasn't going to just blurt out his whole story. He told Marc, Brian and Kyle about the breakup but said he wasn't in the mood to discuss it. They all respected that, except for Kyle who made a nasty comment about how "Robbie" was never better than Matt and that Casey was going to go back to her old boyfriend, with Kyle's help. Behrooz almost got into a fight but Marc restrained him.

"Oh, really?" Behrooz said to Michelle, completely forgetting that night was the Outer Banks Music Festival. Michelle had a guitar ensemble from her Wisconsin research group and Behrooz had mentioned he knew how to play, so they added him as a backup.

"Except it's the singing part, we got this other guitar guy from Illinois, but nobody's willing to sing." Behrooz didn't respond, only continuing to look forlorn. "Yo, it's okay if you can't, I can ask around. "

"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's….something happened between me and Case, I think….I think it's over between us."  
"Hey, don't say that," Michelle said, "I saw how well you and her were together, you shouldn't just give up."  
"Marc tried to tell me that too, but…" he didn't want to add that if his best friend couldn't convince him, she should stop wasting her time. Not that Marc would ever understand, since he and Becca were a constant pair now that they had a lot of time to get to know one another every other night when he chilled with her during her quiet, late shift at Travelodge. Michelle seemed to have read his mind perfectly.

"But I'm a girl, so it should be different. I'm so like the first person who always regret overreacting and then realize things aren't always the way they appear, and I've been through some rough times with Luke cause I just didn't understand at the moment. Whatever happened between you and her, you should at least give it a try."

"She won't even talk to me right now, and she went home. Look, she saw me give Danielle a kiss but the circumstances…"  
Michelle waited a few seconds, then replied, "To be honest, that really doesn't look the best, but you and Dani both care about her so much, she'll remember that. Hey, you were there for her when she needed someone, and Dani's been like this with her since their first day at college." Michelle twisted her fingers. "Just wait a couple days, at least give it a try. You know, I'm like the last person in the world to believe in fate, jeez, maybe it's the hopeless romantic in me, but if you're meant to be together, nothing's gonna stop you."

"Thanks, I'll think about that," Behrooz said.  
"Yeah, you got nothing to lose, so what the heck, ya' know?"

Behrooz called out to her as she walked away. He couldn't let his personal troubles ruin his relations with anyone else, and Michelle was a good friend by now and it wasn't her fault Casey had run off. "Wait….about tonight.."  
"Yeah, what?" she asked, turning back around.

"I…I'd like to help you guys out, but I'm just a crappy singer…my rap sucked didn't it, the same one I always do at those parties?"  
"No, honestly, you actually have a natural talent, besides, this festival's kinda chill, there are some really talented people, but a lot of guys like William Hung too. It's in a couple of hours, so if there's any song you like that we can improvise with, that would be great. As long as we beat those Ohio State people it's cool, haha."

"Yeah, I'll get back to you."

Behrooz exhaled as he went upstairs by himself, taking a seat in a guest lounge looking overlooking the southern part of the town. Whatever he sang tonight, it had to be something for Casey. Too bad she'll be gone by then and would never get a chance to hear it, but he had to do something for her.


	14. The Whole Shebang

CHAPTER 14: The Whole Shebang

CHAPTER 14: The Whole Shebang

GREENSBORO, CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA

Running on empty, Casey thought to herself, looking at the fuel gauge on the fluorescent dashboard shining through the dark interior of her car as the hauntingly beautiful vocals of "Cry Just a Little for Me" played from her Faith Hill CD. Now isn't that fitting? Up ahead, the bright arc on the pavement created by her Camry's head beams seemed to stretch and reach ahead for the yellow dots marking the back of the North American Van Lines tractor-trailer disappearing into the distance, like her heart desperately taking that leap of faith when she thought Robbie might be that elusive somebody meant for her.

She remembered taking her first road trip as a little girl, glancing at the lights cruising past on the highway. To help her fall asleep, her mom had told her they were a thousand neon shooting stars and asked if she wanted to make wishes. She actually believed it, back when she also believed in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and happily ever after.

She sighed as she remembered those memories. Her tenth or so wish, after things like getting a new Barbie set and her school cafeteria having Jello every day, had been sailing into the sunset with her prince like Ariel in the Little Mermaid. I had been so stupid, she thought as she drove alone, fleeing from the pile of heartache that she knew she couldn't outrun forever. There were no shooting stars she could wish upon, just Sonic, Compaq, and Best Western.

The dry rumbling thunder finally opened up into pouring rain as Casey took the off-ramp from westbound Interstate 40 toward a large, brightly-lit travel plaza near the Interstate 85 junction. She had been on the road for seven hours already, her essentials packed in the trunk and the back seat. It was 1:30AM, and there were four major gas stations at this exit, so Casey could thankfully just relax for a while as she pulled up to a pump under the signature neon-green BP canopy. No, at least she didn't have to worry about anyone waiting for her pump right now. Casey needed some time. She was tired and exhausted, definitely at the end of her rope.

She looked at her reflection in her car windows, then at the same reflection on the plasma display of the cents and gallons filling up on the pump. "What the hell's wrong with me?" she asked herself softly out loud. She saw the same flowing blonde hair, turquoise eyes, and naturally tanned skin. Were her looks a problem? She couldn't help but ask herself that question. Why can't anyone just love her for love's sake, and not use her? In high school, her infatuations before Matt simply wanted to prove they were capable of scoring the "hot blonde". Everything with Matt had been a lie as well, and now Robbie too.

She honestly thought Robbie was different, that he was someone she could genuinely share her love with. He was so sincere, so innocent, yet even he was only using her to get close to Danielle, who supposedly knew him from before. Did Robbie live in Missouri too, or meet Dani in other circumstances she was never told about? Casey was sick of all the lies and broken promises she had endured over the past couple years. She didn't have to accept Matt back into her life the first time he had cheated on her, but she had loved him, and wanted him to know she was not just a prize he could brag to Kyle and his other friends about. Some people say beauty's just skin deep, and in her case, it seemed few guys ever had the slightest interest to look beneath that.

All she ever wanted was for someone to want her for who she was, not what she represented. She was too tired to even cry as she watched the pouring rain outside filling the parking lots and roadways with little puddles and took in the sweet smell of damp leaves making its way across the travel plaza mixed with the fumes from that North American and other trucks idling several yards away. No one, not Matt, not Robbie, had ever thought about what she really felt.  
She locked her car as the gas finished pumping and slowly walked into the cool air of the quickie mart, the same one she went to every time she headed to and from the Outer Banks. The radio drone on with hackneyed commercial jingles for Jiffy Lube and then a local Greensboro carpet-installing business as she waited for an elderly man with a cane to slowly make his coffee, blocking off the entire dispenser and cups areas as he wobbled back and forth. Not that she was in any hurry right now. She still hadn't figured out how she would explain this to her family once she pulled back into her garage in Charlotte a few hours from now at the break of dawn. She had forgotten to get someone to cover her morning shift at the beach, but that was the least of her worries.

She picked out a cinnamon glazed Krispy Kreme donut and settled for an Arizona iced tea instead of the coffee. Suddenly, something caught her ear. It was Robbie's voice. She shook her head hard. She must be dreaming, she should get him out of her mind. Yet the voice remained, and it got clearer - it was real. She looked around but it was just the old man, the cashier and a FedEx driver looking for some potato chips. The voice was from directly above her head.

"Hey Jesse, this is the fifth damn time someone requested this, even the Winston-Salem stations got it," the FedEx guy said to the man behind the counter.

"Yeah, I know, Tim, and not just that song but the guy's whole sappy little speech, I bet American Idol would love to have him."  
"Shhh!" Casey said and the two men immediately hushed up upon seeing the attractive young woman.  
"I bet she's gonna go 'awwwwwwww'," Tim said to Jesse.  
"Yeah, no doubt," the other man whispered.

SEVERAL HOURS EARLIER, KILL DEVIL HILLS  
Behrooz finally came up with the right song by writing his version of "I Wish You'd Stay" by Brad Paisley. He tried to focus on the audience, but couldn't stop glancing at the dark sands where he had first met Casey. For a moment it was daylight, and she was there, flashing her sweet Colgate commercial worthy smile from that lifeguard stand five feet from the beach access, as gentle sea breezes lifted that shiny blonde hair off her shoulders. He blinked hard, and there was nothing, just a single pelican hopping up and down on the empty wooden chair, looking forlornly out into the oblivion of the nighttime sea.  
"It's okay, just tell them," Michelle said from her place at an electronic keyboard, where she would be playing the piano accompaniment for the song.  
He turned toward the audience and said, "A lot of you probably know this song, especially those of you lucky enough to be from this part of the country."

A couple cheers broke out. "NC for life!" someone shouted, while a couple other people did the stereotypical "Yee-haw!"  
"This is sung to the melody of I Wish You'd Stay, by Brad Paisley. But I changed some of Brad's words to my own, which I finished writing forty five minutes ago. The last couple weeks here have been the best times of my life. I met a very special person down on the beach here, and she showed me what was so great about this island, this town, and this way of life. When we would race each other on those jet skis, or go fishing with our bare feet dangling off the dock, I knew I was in heaven, and I thought it was going to last forever."

The audience was quiet now, even the raucous men in cowboy hats chewing tobacco and drinking cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon beer on a Chevy pickup truck in an adjacent hotel parking lot.

"But something happened today, and I found out the hard way that life doesn't always turn out the way you want it to. It was my fault I felt I couldn't have been completely honest with her, but I just want her to know that I hope someday she'll understand what really happened today. This song's for my girlfriend Casey, and if only she was here, I want her to know that I've never loved anyone as much as I still love her, and I don't think I ever can."  
Behrooz took a deep breath and turned to Michelle, who was clearly touched by his speech and trying to focus on the notes on the downloaded sheet music in front of her. As she started playing with Brian and Luke on the synthesizers, he began to sing.

Casey froze as he heard that speech, and Tim and Jesse both looked at her smiling to each other as words suddenly came to her mouth in a hushed tone as the song began, "Oh my God."  
"I went by your house this evening  
They told me you're headed back home.  
And it's my fault  
There's no mistake 'bout that  
I didn't need them to tell me  
I know I've made my mistakes  
Maybe its too late, yeah I know,  
But I still need you here.  
I know you need to go  
But before you do I want you to know, that I  
Wish you the best  
And I wish you nothing less  
Than every thing you've ever dreamed of  
And I hope that you find love along the way  
But most of all  
I wish you'd stay  
I figure right about midnight  
You'll be hitting I-85  
And I'll be here, sitting on the sand.  
Missing that smile of yours.  
I know that you've done some changin'  
And I know there's no changin' your mind  
And I'm quite sure  
If I were you, I'd do the same.  
I'm sorry for still holdin' on  
I'll try to let go and I'll try to be strong, and I'll  
Wish you the best  
And I wish you nothing less  
Than every thing you've ever dreamed of  
And I hope that you find love along the way  
But most of all  
I wish you'd stay  
Yeah, everything you've ever dreamed of  
And I hope that you'll find love along the way  
But most of all  
I wish you'd stay  
I wish you'd stay  
Casey ignored the looks on the cashier Jesse's face as she paid for her food with her credit card and dashed out the door. The cashier looked down at her signed receipt and his eyes widened. "Wait, that's her, she's Casey! I'll be damned!"  
He rushed out from behind the counter then along with Tim rushed out the door of the quickie mart, Tim taking out his cell phone and going for the camera option so he could get a picture for the tabloids, but by the time he was ready, Casey's car was already speeding out of the gas station, taking the on-ramp for I-40. Eastbound.

"Hey Robbie, that was pretty tight, man," Marc managed to say through his shock. He had never heard his friend sing like that. Halfway through the first stanza, Behrooz really got into it and his standard English changed into the slight twang that Brad Paisley sang with as he let out the heartache of the past twelve hours, and the past three years. The audience, rowdy from the previous three songs, including another Brad Paisley one, "Alcohol", had been subdued by Behrooz's performance and had to recover before giving a standing ovation.

"Thanks for giving me that chance," Behrooz said to Michelle as she helped Luke pack up his electric guitar.  
"Oh, anytime," she said, trying to sound upbeat and pleasant but also respecting what Behrooz was going through. Michelle finished loading the instruments into the trunk of her Beetle and leaned against the driver's door. "Sometimes it helps to just let it out, you know?"

"Yeah, I hope you're right."  
Behrooz didn't go back inside that night, but rather took a long walk up the beach under the pale moonlight, watching the foamy waves wash up as the tide receded, depositing glistening seashells across the sands. He made his way to the gazebo and just sat there, not wanting to move at all. The last three years and two months had been such a ride, and he needed to compose himself. Behrooz drifted in and out of sleep as the salty air blew past him and rays of light painted the eastern sky a pale blue in those moments before the sun emerged over the ocean.

The old Behrooz would have been angry at Casey. Compared to what he and Danielle had been through, Casey was indeed a shallow, sheltered person whose biggest experience with the world's cruelty was cheating boyfriends. She would never understand what Behrooz had gone through. But that's not her fault, the new Robbie reminded himself. It was his own life that had been messed up, and he can't blame normal people for their being normal. Putting himself in her shoes, he understood why she had been so hurt and angry. A mere month after starting a new relationship following her breakup with Matt, she had discovered Robbie was more of the same. He drifted back asleep, expecting to be wakened by the morning sun, but when he came to, the sky wasn't bright yet, but he heard footsteps.  
"Hey, Robbie?"  
Behrooz turned around and saw Casey standing there in a surf shop t-shirt and cutoff jeans. He thought he was dreaming until he smelled that fragrant fruity shampoo she loved to use.  
"Casey, look, I'm so sorry, I'm going to tell you everything right now," he blurted out.

She walked over to the gazebo as he got up. "It's okay, I heard everything you said last night."  
Behrooz looked at her with an incredulous expression.  
"Some radio stations had DJs here who recorded your song and it was all over the radio with people requesting it for hours on different stations," she told him, "I…I really owe you an apology for yesterday. I should have given you a chance to explain things."  
"Yeah, this is hard…"  
"Heyyy, it's just me, we don't need any secrets, remember? Let's take a walk, help you loosen up a bit more. See what you have to tell me." Casey said with her disarmingly soothing voice.  
"There's only so much I can tell you because believe it or not, this has to do with the law and FBI restrictions on me."  
She looked at him in a slightly annoyed manner, but he began.

"Remember how surprised you were that Dani could surf so well?"  
She nodded as the two of them walked down the beach access onto the powdery sand.  
"That's 'cause she's not really from Missouri. She's from L.A... Her real name is Danielle Pendleton, we both went to high school together in the Valley, and she's been surfing in Huntington Beach since she was five. We had to leave under the witness protection program."  
Behrooz saw Casey's expression of shock and quickly reminded her that ironically, the meeting at the restaurant was with their FBI minder and that the danger was over. She added that Danielle was about to pack up and go back to California soon to regain her old identity.

"None of us or you were ever in any sort of danger. You know I would never put you at risk in any way, don't you?"  
She nodded. "Yeah, I do," Casey replied in a surprisingly confident tone.  
"The people who were after us never came close to finding us. Casey, I can't get into the exact details, but you deserve to know about me and Dani," he said, holding onto the wooden lifeguard stand for support. He suddenly felt weak, but this was something he had to go through.

She gently put her hand on his shoulder and leaned toward him. "If you're not ready, it's fine, I can wait."  
He shook his head. "No, for the past three years, we've had to live with this ourselves. I've always wanted to let it out, but never had a chance to say it to anybody, but I think now's the right time. I think you're the only person who might really understand."  
"I'm here with you, Robbie," she said as she motioned him to join her as she climbed the steps onto the large lifeguard stand, the two of them reclining back in the two-person seat, leaning against each other as the sun finally inched its way up. It was hours before her duty that day would start at 9:30, so they had the stand all to themselves. "We love each other, and no matter what happened in the past, that's not gonna change the way I feel about you."  
Behrooz took a deep breath. "My real name is Behrooz Araz, and like I said, I lived in L.A. with Dani. She had a twin sister named Debbie who I dated for some time. Dani was the one who introduced me to her cause she was always looking out for Debbie, trying to find the right person for her, and for some reason she thought I was it. Debbie and I ended up in the same prep course together studying for the SATs, and things just kinda took off from there.

"Three years ago, Debbie was killed, and it was my fault. I got involved with a lot of trouble during my high school years, and I was the one who put Debbie in that situation where she was killed. I tried to save her, but it was too late. What happened that day was the reason Dani and I had to go into witness protection. She got moved with her family to Kansas City and became Danielle McSpadden. As for me, when you talked to my mom over the phone last time, that wasn't really my mother, it was her friend who I was sent to live with in Maryland. The FBI gave me her last name and made me her son. Both of my real parents died the same day Debbie did, my mom trying to protect me from my father."

Casey could see the tears welling up in Behrooz's eyes and held him closely, massaging his back. "Oh Robbie, I'm so sorry. It's...it's just so hard to believe, everything you had to go through." She paused and took a deep breath, letting everything sink in. "I...I really don't know what to say. Maybe it's not really your fault what happened that day. You didn't have a choice what family you were born into. All this time, I thought you were someone else, um..Behrooz. Or..." she stammered a bit, "It's just hard to believe who you used to be. What...what really matters is who you are right now."

"No, it's Robbie now," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, "What happened yesterday was about putting the past behind me. What that FBI lady told me was that the moment I entered witness protection, the person I used to be doesn't exist anymore, so I'm just Robbie Shiraz, and that 'Robbie' could be whatever kind of person I wanted him to be. I want to move on, and I want to move on with you, Case. Everything else was like a past I should have put behind me years ago. I like to think I deserve to be proud of who I am now, that I did something with a second chance, that I deserve to love someone, and be loved back again."

"Robbie, don't question yourself like that," Casey said, leaning toward him, Behrooz feeling the soft tickle of her hair in the gentle sun, "I love you because you're you, that nice, yeah, kinda awkward, but really nice person you were when I first met you. I know you're still that same person right now. It's okay to just follow that agent's advice and let the past die. Jeez, people always tell me I'm such a great counselor with friends, I don't know. But I'll try my best. You...you can trust me."

"When I kissed Dani yesterday, I was really saying goodbye to Debbie, and burying that day for good. When Dani tried to convince you to reconsider us being together, it was because she cared about you and didn't want you to get hurt. She had every right in the world to feel that way, because I couldn't save Debbie in time. Her dreams, some of them were about you. Even though the deepest part of her believed she was going to be able to be her real self again, you're nothing less than a real best friend to her. She was just looking out for you."

Casey felt guilty as she heard this, letting the truth sink in. Her friend never chose to go to Missouri or end up in North Carolina, but Danielle never treated Casey like someone she would hang around with for a couple years until she got her old life back. They developed a deep bond with one another that Danielle would never forget, she had told him.

"Jesus, I was so stupid, I feel like a complete jerk…" Casey began.  
"Dani understands, Case, it's fine," he said.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Positive."  
Behrooz felt the weight of the world lift off his shoulders. He couldn't have told Casey the exact details of the FBI and CTU crisis, but this had been enough, and in the end, she didn't bolt or push him away in disgust. She was still sitting here, holding him tightly, leaning against him.

"I also love you because you're you, not because you're a hot blonde or whatever labels people attach to you. It's the way you play with your hamsters, the way your room's set up so amazingly, the way you make that funny face when your dog drools all over you."  
She gave out a soft chuckle and he continued. "It's really little moments like that, things a lot of people miss, that make you the most special person in the world."  
"Thanks, I love you, Robbie. I really don't know where I'll be without you." she said then their lips met as Behrooz wrapped his arms around her body, knowing that no matter happened from now on, this moment alone had made his life worth it.

He wanted to ask her how she knew he would be at that gazebo as they got down from the lifeguard stand and walked toward her cottage, but he knew the answer. They were so close to one another that of course she would know the nuances of his personality. The sky had changed from bright orange to a clear blue as they made it back to her cottage. While Casey was shocked by Behrooz's story and by Debbie's death, she knew looking into his eyes that it had been completely out of his control. Sometimes you blame yourself for things you thought you could have foreseen but you really couldn't have.

People often said that hindsight's 20/20, but it wasn't that simple. The real difference was that hindsight gave you the big picture, a larger perspective you could not possibly have been aware of at first. It was a perspective that included what other people thought or knew. Danielle was glad that Rick Peterson had let her see that big picture, and Behrooz was forever grateful to Casey for being there with him and understanding him when he most needed it.

Yet Casey needed Behrooz too, and as they walked up from the beach and used the footwash by the Days Inn's outdoor pool, Casey told him that last night was his first real challenge in the "real world", where knowing how to trust someone, knowing if one's heart was true, was a big deal, a world far away from the nerve gas, nuclear bombs, and suicide attacks of the past. This was the world he was joining now. For her, by her own standards, she never thought she would be able to convince Behrooz just how much the past few hours had been for her too. She had her own demons to battle her whole life, perhaps not like the ones Behrooz had to, but demons nonetheless. She finally knew that she could find a man out there whom she could open up her heart to. Deep down, she knew that everything was going to be alright, for both of them.

Danielle ran through the front door into the yard as she saw Behrooz and Casey approach the house together, hand in hand. So things had worked out after all, she thought.  
"Hey Case," Danielle said, standing in the doorway and pretending to be upset, "Some lifeguard you are, I thought you're supposed to pull people out of the water, not shove them in." A grin then spread across her face and both of them shared a good laugh, Casey looking embarrassed.

"I'm really, really sorry about that," she said, "I know about your sister now, and I know why you were trying to protect me by convincing me to not rush into it with Robbie."  
"It's cool," Danielle replied, "I know how you felt too. Look, there's actually something I needed to tell you. I've told the other girls already…"  
"Yeah, you're going back to California like tomorrow, right?"  
She nodded. "It's…I haven't seen my family or my old friends for 3 years. Like my grandparents in Palm Springs, my childhood buddies at UCLA and USC and Berkeley…it's…"  
"Yeah, I understand," Casey said sadly, "We're all gonna miss you so much."

"Actually, not quite," Danielle responded, "I talked to the FBI last night, and they can make arrangements so that I'll still be with you all when school starts. I'm not gonna transfer out, just gotta make sure all my professors know I have a new name, get my records updated. I absolutely love our school, and you all and all our other friends back there have given me the best college experience I can ask for. There's no way I'm giving that up. Besides, it's senior year, and who knows? I might even stay on through grad school."

"Why that's greaaatttt!" Casey said, beaming, "I might even be looking forward to school now, LOL. Plus, you're always welcome to come back here. You're still the totally awesome Danielle, no matter what your last name is."  
The two girls giggled and hugged each other.  
"Thanks so much for everything," Danielle said, then gave Behrooz a slight nod before she went back into the house.  
SIX MONTHS LATER, WISP SKI RESORT, WESTERN MARYLAND  
The artificial snow machine blew out thick clouds of spotlessly clean white snow as Behrooz and Casey rode together in the ski lift looking down on the sparkling, bright blue waters of Deep Creek Lake under the clear winter sky.

"Down there's when I first learned to jet ski, you know. Summer here's great, different from the beach, but it's real nice. Like when you're tubing behind a boat and start flying across the water you're don't have to worry about swallowing all that salt. "  
"Wow, I can imagine, I love this place," she replied brightly.

Unlike the Outer Banks, Western Maryland, set in the beautiful Allegheny range of the Appalachian Mountains, was a year-round destination, with vacationers flocking to the hotels, resorts, and vacation rentals lining the pristine artificial lake for boating and fishing during the summer, and challenging ski runs dominating the winter months. Casey had decided to come up to see Behrooz for a couple days during their winter breaks and celebrate his acceptance into vet school in North Carolina. In another couple months, they would be going back to her beach cottage to make their last summer before officially entering the real world the best one of their lives. In addition, they were seriously considering going to Acapulco for spring break. The only real strain relationship had occurred during the NCAA football championship game, where the Maryland Terrapins creamed the North Carolina Tar Heels 49-0.

Casey had told Behrooz that sure enough, Danielle wasn't that different now that she got her old identity back, and that although she felt freer to play indie rock and Indian music, she had developed a taste for country all by herself now. She had been accepted to the business schools at both UNC and the University of California-Davis, and she was still trying to make up her mind about whether to relocate to the South for good.

"Hey look down there, looks like they're doing great too," Behrooz said, pointing down on the slopes where Becca was helping Marc up after he fell off his snowboard.  
"Yeah, I'm really happy for them. It worked out so well, they really needed one another."  
"Well, maybe just a teeny bit less than WE needed each other," Behrooz said, stealing a kiss on the part of her cheek still exposed between her scarf and hat.

"Yeah, that's for sure," she said as they reached the top of the mountain and looked down at the ski runs that appeared to run straight into the large lake below. "I was wondering, actually, all these woods here…..there aren't like bears and wolves, are there?"  
Behrooz laughed and she playfully struck him on the head. "What?" she asked, rolling her eyes.  
"Jeez, it's the forest, of course there are bears and wolves in the forest," Behrooz replied, "But if you're wondering about your chances of getting eaten by one…its, uh, kinda of like your chances of getting attacked by a shark at Kill Devil Hills."


End file.
